Deutsch-Israelische Zusammenarbeit
‫ישראלי‬-‫שיתוף פעולה גרמני‬
German-Israeli Cooperation
Germany – Israel
Science and Technology, Education and Research
RESEARCH
Germany – Israel
Science and Technology, Education and Research
Foreword
Foreword
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and high-powered systems of the sciences. Flexible
and precisely-aligned instruments of funding are
required to reap excellent results in all fields.
The First German-Israeli Forum on Research Cooperation is a further instrument of this cooperation.
The Forum’s objectives are depicting the range of
research relationships and, at the same time, imparting a new impetus to these ties. The Research Forum represents a new highpoint in our joint efforts.
To secure prosperity and to exploit potential for
growth, we have to keep on linking tradition and
progress. By doing such, Germany and Israel will be
successful in the global competition in the sciences
and technologies, and in education and research.
Federal Minister of Education and Research
Germany-Israel: working relationship in the
sciences and technology, education and
research
The German-Israeli cooperation in the sciences and
technology, education and research is highly lively
and diverse. The large-sized web of relationships
between scientists in both countries has been extended over the last more than 50 years. To support this
process, we called into being in 2008 the GermanIsraeli Year of Sciences and Technology. We have
primarily and further strengthened the humanities
and cultural sciences, and have improved the networking among young scientists.
Since September 2010, young German and Israeli
scholars have been jointly supported by the Foundation Martin Buber Society of Fellows in the Humanities. Facility of research is the Hebrew University in
Jerusalem. The best scientists in Germany and Israel
are now working together in nearly all fields of
research. The thrust of this work is formed by important fields of needs, to which research into health,
biotechnologies and civil security belong.
We want to “future-proof” the long-term working
relationship between our two countries. This
requires attuning proven models of cooperation
to the continually-changing needs of two dynamic
contents
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Contents
The significance of the cooperation between Germany and Israel
4
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Cooperation programs
8
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Programs of the Minerva Foundation
9
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BMBF-MOITAL-MOST inter-ministerial research cooperation
12
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German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development (GIF)
19
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German-Israeli Project Cooperation (DIP)
21
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Foundation Martin Buber Society of Fellows in the Humanities
22
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Further activities
23
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eU and eUreKA
24
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European programs and initiatives
24
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EUREKA
24
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COST
25
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Programs of German funding organizations and foundations
26
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Funding organizations
26
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Political foundations
30
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Private foundations
34
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research and education in Israel
38
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Universities
38
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Public sector research facilities
38
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Ministry of Science and Technology
39
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Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor
39
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Ministry of Education
41
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Council of Higher Education
41
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Instruments of research support
41
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Israel’s institutions of higher education and their research facilities
42
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Bar-Ilan University (BIU)
42
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Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU)
45
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The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI)
47
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Technion in Haifa
49
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Tel Aviv University (TAU)
51
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University of Haifa
53
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Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot (WIS)
55
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German-Israeli cooperation: case studies
Contents
57
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Research into civil security
57
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Medical research
59
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Oceanography
61
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Environmental research
61
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Food safety
62
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Physics
62
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Water management
63
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Bioethics
64
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Impetus for the future
65
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New fields for the German-Israeli cooperation
65
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Research into civil security
65
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Humanities
65
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Fields of industrial research
65
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Thrusts ensuing from instruments fostering the further development of the cooperation
65
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German-Israeli Forum on Research Cooperation
66
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Intergovernmental consultations
66
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Committees of coordination
67
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In their own words: scientists on Israel, Germany and Europe
67
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Interview with Prof. Moshe Zimmermann, Minerva Richard Koebner Center for German History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
68
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Interview with Prof. Mina Teicher, Emmy Noether Institute and Minerva Center for Mathematics at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat-Gan
70
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Appendix
72
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3
4
The significance of the cooperation between Germany and Israel
The significance of the cooperation between Germany and Israel
As of the beginning of the 21st century, the
working relationships existing between Germany and Israel in the areas of the sciences
and technology have attained an intensity
unforeseeable as of the time of their inceptions nearly 50 years ago. with this starting
at the end of the 1950s, this progressive
broadening and deepening of the ties existing among the countries’ scientists have
constituted an important wellspring of the
ongoing normalization of political relationships. Germany’s original motive for pursuing such relationships was indemmification.
The countries’ relationship has been transformed into being one of equals.
From the past to the present
Scientists of Jewish origins played a significant role
in the German (referring to the countries and areas
in which the language is spoken) sciences in the era
preceding 1933’s assumption of power by the Nazis.
Their tyranny put a violent end to this success story.
The aftermath of the founding of today’s Federal
Republic of Germany was marked by the wish of the
country’s scientists to renew and restore the fruitful
ties once existing with their German Jewish colleagues. This process began in the early 1950’s, with
the forging of person-to-person contacts at international conferences between Germans and Israelis.
It took until 1959 for a major breakthrough to be
achieved. A delegation from the Max Planck Society
(MPG) was invited to visit Israel by the Weizmann
Institute (WIS). This forging of a tie to the Weizmann Institute gave Germany a way of securing
further qualifications for its young scientists, who
had been increasingly migrating to the USA during
the 1950’s, that did not represent a one-way ticket
out of Germany. As subsequently was the case with
their colleagues at Israel’s universities, the scientists at WIS saw the cooperation with Germany’s researchers as offering an opportunity to bring about
the further expansion of their facility’s research
infrastructure.
Zurich airport, December 1959: The delegation from the Max Planck
Society is preparing to depart to Israel, where it will conduct its initial
visit to the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot. From left to right: Prof.
Feodor Lynen, Prof. Wolfgang Gentner, Ms. Alice Gentner, Prof. Otto
Hahn and Dr. Josef Cohn
The tie ensuing between MPG and WIS marked
the beginning of ongoing and long-term working
relationships between the countries’ scientific communities. Concluded in 1964 and still in force today,
the Minerva contract has provided a rock-solid foundation for the working relationship between these
two large and important research organizations.
The sciences were thus forerunners of and pacesetters in the forging of ties between the Germans
and the Israelis, a process that attained its apex with
the assumption of diplomatic relations in 1965. Today, 63 years after the founding of the state of Israel
and 62 years after that of the Federal Republic of
Germany, this scientific relationship can be regarded as being a success of historical import.
Israel is today one of the world’s leading scientific nations. The country has become one of the most
important partners in the world for Germany’s scientific and business communities. Israel’s development into a high-tech country has joined the close
working relationships between the countries in the
areas of the sciences in leading German manufacturers to progressively increase their investments in
Israel.
The significance of the cooperation between Germany and Israel
Conversely, a large number of Israeli companies
have selected Germany to be the base of their activities in Europe.
Israel: a high-tech country
Israel is small and has virtually no natural resources. To overcome these basic conditions, the
country’s founding parents decided to build up its
research facilities and its scientific community in
general. To do such, they instituted economic policies focused on exploiting the country’s greatest
asset – the high quality of its education system and
the intellectual capital that it produces – by harnessing them in the engendering of exports of hightech products.
Germany’s chancellor Konrad Adenauer and Israel’s Prime Minister
David Ben-Gurion at their historic meeting in New York on March 14,
1960
education and research
Chaim Weizmann (1874–1952), the first president of
the state of Israel and, as well, the president of the
institute named after him, was one of the first to recognize that intelligence “is the only natural resource that we possess”. His efforts to establish a Jewish
university in the then Palestine led to the opening
in 1925 in Jerusalem of the Hebrew University. In
1934, he set up the Daniel-Sieff Institute in Rehovot.
The role model of this predecessor of today’s WIS
5
was Germany’s Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. Immigration in the 1930s of Jewish scientists from Germany
impelled the development of this and other highperforming scientific institutions in Israel.
For many years, Israel has invested more heavily
in its research community than any other country
in the world. This investment has joined the 1990’s
wave of immigration by scientists from Russia in
giving Israel the world’s largest per capita agglomeration of scientists and engineers.
One fact revealing the international-mindedness
of Israel’s scientists is that one third of the publications issued by them feature non-Israeli co-authors.
Scientific cooperation on the international
level
Israel’s population is not large. This fact imposes
boundaries on the country’s research activities. To
overcome these, the country strives to extend its
base of – high-quality – research by setting up working relationships on the international level. These
reduce financial encumbrances. Main partner for
such relationships is the USA. America’s companies,
investors and large-sized foundations provide the
research commissions, venture capital and scholarships providing a substantial part of the funding
going to research in Israel. The USA is also the partner of choice for Israel’s post-docs and other young
scientists, for which a research post at a major university in the USA constitutes an essential stepping
stone to a successful career. Second most important
partner for Israel’s scientific community is Germany. This applies to both the bilateral and European
levels. Israel’s cooperation with Germany opened
the door to its securing of research grants from the
European Union (EU). This, in turn, facilitated the
integration of Israel into Europe’s research sector.
Since 1996, and via special-purpose agreements
of association, Israel has been participating in the
European Union’s framework programs for research
and technological development.
6
The significance of the cooperation between Germany and Israel
Germany is Israel’s most important partner within FP7. As of 2011, a total of 352 projects with German-Israeli participation had been approved.
Israeli scientists submitted more than 4,100 applications for funds from the 7th Research Framework
Program (FP7). Of them, 754 were approved. Of these, nearly 64% were from the country‘s universities
and 24% from its manufacturers. Most important in
this area is the working relationship with Germany.
Nearly 47% of the Israeli projects of cooperation
approved in conjunction with the FP7 featured important contributions from German scientists. The
total number of projects involving German-Israeli
participation is highly significant. As of 2011, a total
of 352 projects had been approved.
The country’s improving of ties over the last few
years with the majority of Europe’s research organizations and associations has been achieved through
its becoming a full or associated member (with
observer status) in them. Israel is a full member of
EUREKA, the European network for market-oriented research and development, and a “cooperating
state” in COST, an instrument for the fostering of
cooperation in Europe in the areas of scientific and
technical research. In 1998, Israel was accorded the
status of being a non-voting scientific member of
the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF)
in Grenoble.
Israel is also a founding member of the European
Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and of the
European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).
The country is a member of the European Science
Foundation and of the European Academy. Israel
also enjoys observer status at the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
and at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).
economy
In 2010, Israel recorded a 4.6% rate of economic
growth. Coupled with a steadily declining unemployment rate, this figure details the health of the
country’s economy, which has recovered from the
worldwide economic crisis and from the effects of
the second Intifada. The ensuing boom has caused
high-tech start-ups to shoot up everywhere. Today’s
Israel is home to more 3,000 companies. These are
predominantly small-sized and R&D-driven. More
than one third of them are active in IT. The thrusts
of corporate R&D are communication technologies,
biotechnologies, medical technologies and solar
energy.
A wellspring of the success of Israel’s high-tech
companies is constituted by the comprehensive
system of state support. Main conduit of provision is
the country’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor
(MOITAL). Israel devotes 4.8% of its gross domestic
product to research and development – the highest
figure in the world. The Global Competitiveness
The significance of the cooperation between Germany and Israel
Report for 2006 ranks Israel 15th in the world in the
area of technological competitiveness, and thus
ahead of Canada, France and Korea. Israel has been,
in fact, accorded first place in the area of the availability of scientists and engineers.
A further factor of success is the large portion
accounted for by private risk capital in the country’s
funding mix. Israel’s provision of venture capital is
greater than any country in Europe, and thus more
than that of the UK, Germany, France and Sweden.
The attractiveness of Israel as a place of investment is detailed by the ongoing high inflow of
capital into it from primarily the USA and from
other countries. Main objects of these investments
are the biotech and other high-tech areas. Impelling
international interest in investing in the country’s
companies is the fact that their assets primarily consist of patents and staff expertise. This intellectual
capital is easy to relocate abroad in times of crisis.
Siemens, SAP, Volkswagen, Daimler AG, Deutsche
Telekom, Bosch Siemens Hausgeräte, Henkel, BASF
and Bayer remain the most important German investors in Israel. SAP, Siemens and Deutsche Telekom
have undertaken significant direct investments in
the country over the past few years. The involvement by Germany’s business community in Israel
also manifests itself in the research commissions
awarded to Israel’s institutions of higher education
and research facilities.
By the same token, Israeli companies continue
to invest in Germany – with these including Federmann Enterprises (semiconductor materials) and ISCAR (machine tools) – and to award a large number
of commissions to German research institutes.
The first German-Israeli Intergovernmental Consultations featured March 17, 2008’s promulgation
by German federal minister Prof. Annette Schavan
and by her then fellow minister Galeb Majadle of a
scientific forum. Held in Jerusalem, its subject was
“From a commissioned producer to the developer of
market-viable products – the role played by academic basic research in the industrial development of
Israel and Germany”.
In 2010 the first German-Israeli Innovation day
took place. Attended by leading businesspersons
from both countries, the Innovation Day was
7
chaired by Rainer Brüderle, Germany’s then federal
minister of economic affairs, and by Benjamin Ben
Eliezer, who was in those days Israel’s minister of
industry, trade and labor. The aim was to discuss
challenges with leading experts, find suitable partners for cooperation during sector-specific panels
and matchmaking sessions, and get information on
government funding instruments.
Germany’s companies are also prepared to support the German government’s “Initiative for the
Future of Palestine” and to participate in projects
encompassing the region formed by Israel, Palestine and Jordan. This is their way of doing their part
in the promoting of peaceful coexistence in the
region.
Cooperation programs
8
Cooperation programs
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The cornerstones of the working relationships between Germany and Israel in the
area of scientific working relationships are
five cooperation programs, each with its
own objective, and all supported by BMBF
(Germany’s Federal Ministry of education
and research).
In addition to BMBF and its cooperation programs, a
number of other organizations foster such working
relationships. They include the German Research
Foundation (DFG), the Alexander von Humboldt
Foundation (AvH), the German Academic Exchange
Service (DAAD) and such private foundations as the
Volkswagen and Fritz Thyssen ones.
The key-instruments supporting these efforts:
•
Minerva programs
•
the inter-ministerial research cooperation
maintained by BMBF-MoITAL-MoST, including
the program for joint efforts in the area of
vocational education
•
German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific research and development (GIF)
•
German-Israeli Project Cooperation (dIP)
•
Foundation Martin Buber Society of Fellows in
the Humanities
Securing the future of cooperation in research and
technology requires an intensive participation by
the young generation. To bring this about, corresponding measures have been incorporated into
all extant scientific and technological cooperation
programs. Over the last few years, new programs in
the field of energy, marine studies and civil security research were set up and extended. Especially
worthy of being mentioned is the field of water
technology, in which the bilateral projects were
extended to include multilateral ones in the region.
The short-term scholarships offered by Minerva and
GIF’s young scientists program are complemented
by those of Germany’s large-sized exchange organizations.
The event kicking off the German-Israeli Year of Science and Technology. The event was held in the Glass Courtyard of Berlin’s Jewish
Museum on April 7, 2008. The event took a look at the nearly 50 years
of cooperation between the two countries.
Cooperation programs
Programs of the Minerva Foundation
It was as long ago as 1959 that the initial contacts
between scientists at the Max-Planck Society (MPG)
and the Weizmann Institute (WIS) launched the
scientific exchange between Germany and Israel.
Nowadays, the Minerva Foundation employs three
programs to fund research in and with Israel.
On March 14, 1960, the historically-important
meeting between David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s prime
minister, and Konrad Adenauer, Germany’s chancellor, took place in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in
New York. At the meeting, Adenauer announced a
donation of DeutschMarks 3 million to the Weizmann Institute. This launched the era of comprehensive support of the sciences in Israel.
Minerva-weizmann Project Support
The first steps were the awarding of the Weizmann
Institute with research commissions upon which
scientists from both countries were to work. Concluded in 1963, an initial agreement foresaw the
supporting of scientific projects. The DeutschMarks
2 million in funding for these was provided by the
Volkswagen Foundation.
As of 1964, the then German Federal Ministry of
Research assumed – under the auspices of the first
Minerva contract with the Weizmann Institute – the
financing of 19 projects in the fields of physics and
biology. Total amount of support: DeutschMarks
3.5 million. The Volkswagen Foundation then also
financed the exchange of scientists engaged in conducting basic research in fields of common interest.
Today, the Minerva-Weizmann program supports
projects in all fields of the natural sciences. As of
this writing, up to 80 projects receive a total of €3.57
million annually for three years.
The Minerva-Weizmann Committee is equitably
comprised of scientists from Germany and from
the Weizmann Institute. Its job is to evaluate the
projects. To formulate its decisions, the Committee
avails itself of appraisals secured from around the
world and of on-site symposia. Priority is given –
assuming that they all have the same level of quality
– to projects featuring German participation and applications submitted by young scientists. Since the
beginning of 2008, young German scientists have
9
been making use of the opportunity of directly applying to ongoing projects for grants for a short-term
stay. These are funded by the Weizmann Institute.
Another priority is increasing the intermeshing
between the Weizmann Institute and German research centers in the fields of fostering the talents
of young scientists and of educating graduates. It
was as early as 2005 that the Minerva-Weizmann
Committee decided to furnish funding for the working relationship between the Feinberg Graduate
School and the International Max Planck Research
School (IMPRS) for Molecular Biology in Göttingen.
The project got a very positive evaluation and has
since served as a role model. Up until now, BMBF
has dedicated some €127 million for Minerva
project-related research at the Weizmann Institute. This research has accounted for more than
10% of the publications issuing from the Weizmann
Institute as a whole over the last 10 years.
Minerva research Centers
Funding has been provided since 1975 to Minerva
Research Centers. These small-scale centers of excellence are located at Israeli universities and at the
Weizmann Institute. The centers are joined by German scientists in carrying out advanced research.
The spectrum of sciences covered by the centers,
which form by now an important part of Israel’s
research community, include the biosciences, the
geosciences, chemistry, computer sciences, environmental technologies, jurisprudence, literature,
theology and history. The Centers facilitate the
focusing on certain fields of research and the constituting of networks in these. The Centers also intensively foster a pipeline of young scientists and help
bring about the deepening of the exchange of experience between scientists in Israel and Germany. Financing for the research centers stems equally from
the return of capital made available by Germany’s
then Federal research ministry and invested in
Israel on a long-term basis (currently amounting to
some €62 million) and from funds provided proprietarily by the selected Israeli research institutes.
The latter is of the amount of the annual capital
earnings (matching principle). Although not excessively large, the funding is capable of being flexibly
allocated. This, in turn, helps explain the successes
achieved by the Centers. The Minerva Foundation
has commissioned the Minerva Center Committee
Cooperation programs
10
Minerva Stiftung GmbH
location
Munich
year of founding
1965
Programs of support
Minerva Centers program
centers of excellence at Israeli research institutions
•
•
•
•
Minerva-weizmann Project Support
research projects and short-term stays by German predocs and post-docs (supported by the WIS)
•
•
•
•
•
fields: all
institutions: 6 Israeli universities and WIS
funding: funding: return of €62 million as funds for
30 active Minerva Centers in 7 institutions
call for proposals: irregular
fields: all natural sciences
partner program: no
amount of support: €3.57 million for a total of 80
current projects
term of support: 3 years
call for proposals: annually
•
call for proposals for short-term stay: none,
application directly to current project
•
•
•
•
•
fields: all
partner program: no
term of support: 6 months – max. 3 years // 01-08
weeks
amount of support: weekly/ monthly allowance
call for proposals: annually
Gentner Symposia
symposia on fields of research new to German-Israeli
cooperation
•
•
•
•
fields: all
partner program: yes
amount of support: max. €30,000
call for proposals: annually
Minerva Schools
several-day workshops for advanced students + young
scientists
•
•
•
•
fields: all
partner program: yes
amount of support: max. €25,500
call for proposals: annually
ArCHeS Award
BMBF prize for two German-Israeli teams of young
scientists a year
Administration by Minerva Foundation
•
fields: natural and engineering sciences, life sciences, social sciences and humanities, alternating
annually
partner program: yes
amount of support: €200,000 per team
call for proposals: annually
Contact
Ms. Angelika Lange-Gao (lange-gao@gv.mpg.de)
Ms. Sieglinde Reichardt (reichardt@gv.mpg.de)
Mr. Michael Nagel (nagel@gv.mpg.de)
Tel.: +49 (0) 89-2108-1420
Website
http://www.minerva.mpg.de/
Minerva Scholarship Program
research stays (both short and long-term) by German
pre-docs, post-docs and young scientists
•
•
•
Cooperation programs
with the coordination and the operations-spanning
supervision of the Centers. The Committee is comprised of internationally-recognized scientists from
all fields, and is responsible for the evaluation of applications for and the selection of new centers, and
for the appraising on a regular basis of the Centers.
The latter two activities are undertaken employing
external experts. The Centers program is currently
in a process of transition towards instituting a more
competitive procedure.
Minerva Scholarship Program
The Minerva Scholarship Program is the oldest extant
program charged with fostering German-Israeli working relationships, having been kicked off in 1961/62
with the initial research residency of a German guest
scientist at the Weizmann Institute. The program’s
extension in 1964–1973 was undertaken with the help
of the Volkswagen Foundation. During this period,
the first Israeli post-docs conducted research at
Max-Planck Institutes in Germany. The launching of
the financing of the program by Germany’s Federal
research ministry enabled the inclusion of Israeli
universities in the program of exchange. As of 2010,
the ministry had supplied a total of some €40 million
to fund long-term research residencies of some 1,000
Israeli and 1,000 German scientists in the other country. The scholarship program devotes €1.2 million a
year to funding some 50 annual scholarships. These
go to young scientists from both countries.
Minerva scholarships are available to researchers
in all fields. Prime objects of support are pre-docs and
post-docs. Terms of support range, as a rule, between
at least six months to two years. Maximum length
is three years for pre-docs. With some 35 being
awarded annually, Minerva scholarships for brief
stays – between one and eight weeks – provide young
German and Israeli scientists with the opportunity to
forge initial contacts with partners in the host country, and to take part in seminars and workshops.
Set up in 1997, the 30 (as of 2010) Minerva Schools
facilitate the objective of providing promising students – in all fields of the sciences – with contacts to
leading scientists in them and from both countries
during their higher education. Platforms of this
forging of ties are get-togethers lasting two or more
days. The goal is to arouse interest on the part of
young scientists in undertaking long-term research
residences in the other country.
11
Even great aspirations are held by the Gentner –
named after Wolfgang Gentner, one of the parents of
Germany’s forging of scientific ties to Israel – Symposia, which have been receiving funding since 1972. Topics of these large-scale conferences are found in all
fields of research. Total financing of these amounts to
some €30,000. This stems from the scholarship program. Young scientists flock to participate in these
symposia.
The dispensing of scholarships is decided upon
by the Minerva Scholarship Committee, whose
members are, on an equitable basis, scientists from
Germany and Israel.
Cooperation programs
12
BMBF-MoITAL-MoST inter-ministerial research cooperation
The German-Israeli research cooperation is based
on the working relationship between Germany’s
Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
and Israel’s Ministry of Science and Technology
(MOST). Its foundation was an agreement reached
in 1973. Since 2000, the inter-ministerial working
relationship has been extended to bilateral working relationships in the area of industry. These are
derived from an agreement concluded by BMBF
and by Israel’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor
(MOITAL). In June 2011, Prof. Annette Schavan and
Shalom Simon, Israel‘s minister of industry, signed
a governmental agreement on industry-driven
research and development and on vocational and
professional education.
The supporting of projects in the natural and
technological sciences is undertaken via bilateral
calls for proposals. In contrast to those supported
by the Minerva programs, the projects tend to be
application-oriented. Projects of cooperation between universities and research facilities are largely
financed by BMBF and supported in cooperation
with MOST. The financing of working relationships
between industrial partners is equitably undertaken
by BMBF and by the programs of MOITAL’s Office of
the Chief Scientist (OCS). BMBF channels the financing of both programs via the funding initiatives of
the individual BMBF programs of specialization.
BMBF routed in 2009 some €12 million for ongoing projects via such programs of specialization.
The thrust of the ministries was pursuing those
topics that are also receiving support from these
programs and that satisfy the interests of MOITAL
and MOST. The results of the research work are reported upon in a large number of scientific publications. This work has also been made accessible to the
general public by the staging of status seminars.
The coordination of the inter-ministerial research cooperation is undertaken by a joint committee whose members are representatives of the
participating ministries and of national authorities.
The joint committee meets once a year. The venue
of these meetings alternates between Germany and
Israel. Steering committees supervise the scientific level, and issue recommendations as to which
projects are to be supported. The committees also
evaluate the results of the projects. The committees
Bidding farewell to both of the long-term coordinators of the BMBFMOST cooperation in the area of cancer research, Prof. Erich Hecker,
DKFZ, and Dr. Yair Degani, MOST, Berlin, March, 2003
are also charged with strengthening and coordinating the work of bilateral agreements, with
these including those forming part of the European
platforms upon which both countries participate
(EUREKA, Eurostars, FP7).
The current thrusts of the inter-ministerial research
work are in the following areas:
Cancer research
The cooperation between BMBF and MOST in the
area of cancer research was launched in 1976. The
cooperation is implemented by the Heidelbergbased German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) and
by Israeli research facilities and universities.
Each of the joint scientific projects has a threeyear term, and each is comprised of an Israeli and a
DKFZ subproject. On an exceptional basis, a German
subproject can also be headed by a scientist from a
partner facility.
As of the end of 2010 and in conjunction with the
cooperation, 144 projects undertaken by DKFZ and its
partners had received support. Of these, 127 had been
successfully concluded. The total amount of funding
for the German and Israeli projects came to €26.7
million.
Cooperation programs
13
Twenty four young German and Israeli cancer researchers will be given the chance to participate in a doctoral training program offered jointly by the
German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. As part of their German-Israeli doctoral theses, the
young scientists will carry out research at the respective partner institute for a period of six to twelve months.
In a first, a Winter School receiving support from a
Helmholtz Association was staged at the beginning
of March 2008. Venue was Pichl, Austria. At the
School, 19 students and pre-docs from Israel and
Germany gave lectures on imaging in molecularlevel cancer research, on molecular biology and on
epigenetics. In March 2010, the Research School was
held for the third time. Its focus was immunology.
Biotechnologies
Also in existence since 1976 is the cooperation
between BMBF and MOST in the area of biotechnologies. This working relationship was reconfigured
in 2000 to focus on application-conductive projects
of cooperation involving Israeli research groups and
German companies.
This, in turn, has formed the foundation of the
support provided by the German-Israeli Cooperation in Biotechnology – BIO-DISC. MOITAL/OCS participated in the founding of this cooperation, which
provides support to the bilateral research consortia
comprised of German and Israeli companies. The
financing of the work of the Israeli partner issues via
OCS; of the German side via BMBF. Universities and
research facilities from both countries are entitled
to participate in these industrial consortia as subcontractors, and to submit joint feasibility studies
serving to ready industrial research and development (R&D) projects.
Undertaken in the five rounds of tendering since
the first publication, consortium projects have
received a total volume of support of nearly €10 million. This has issued equitably from BMBF and MOITAL. BMBF has also provided a further €5 million
for a total of ten feasibility studies. These have been
compiled by research facilities in Germany and
Israel. Topics covered by the projects range from the
development of technologies to the improvement of
plants, the employment of the analysis of genomes
in the development of genes of therapeutic use, and
the further development of medical-use implants.
In Spring 2010, the sixth round of this successful
German-Israeli working relationship took place,
which features the participation of manufacturers.
Neurosciences
An agreement between Israel and Germany on
scientific cooperation in the area of health research
forms the basis of the support provided since 1976
by BMBF to bilateral and biomedical research pro-
Cooperation programs
14
Drilling a well in the Desert of the Judean mountains, which is located close to the Dead Sea
jects. In 1998, the thrust of the program’s research
was shifted from the heart and circulatory system
to neurology. Such topics as epilepsy, neuronal
degeneration and the role of molecular and cellular
mechanisms in the brain’s functioning became the
primary focuses of research. The program came to
an end in 2008. During its time of operation, it provided support to 23 bilateral research projects, and,
starting in 2003, to a successful exchange program
for young scientists.
environmental research
In addition to pursuing research into technologyoriented fields, BMBF facilitates the securing of the
availability, quality and distribution of water, a
resource that is a necessity of life. Conduit for such
efforts are the ministry’s “Global Change and the
Hydrological Cycle – GLOWA” overall program and
a scientific strategy. A subproject is the GLOWA
JR – for “Jordan River” Project, in which German,
Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian partners have
been participating since 2001. This interdisciplinary
project is being undertaken to appraise the vulnerability of people and ecosystems. To that end, various
methods of water and land management and their
ecological and socioeconomic ramifications are
being investigated. The integrated examination of
natural, scientific and socioeconomic processes represents a successful and pioneering achievement
in the field of environmental research. It should
be capable of being transferred to other semi-arid
regions featuring transnational water resources.
GLOWA JR entered its phase of implementation in
the German-Israeli Year of Science and Technology
in 2008.
water technologies
Water is a precious essential of life. This holds
especially true in such arid regions as Israel. The
cooperation between BMBF and MOST in the area
of water technologies was launched in 1974. Since
then, some 162 research projects featuring input
from German experts have been carried out at Israeli research facilities. Main topics of these have been
Cooperation programs
15
Inter-ministerial Cooperation
BMBF-MoITAL-MoST Fields
Cancer Research, Biotechnology, Neurosciences,
Environmental Research, Water Technologies, Marine
Sciences and Geosciences, Energy Research, Research
into civil security
Administered by
DKFZ Heidelberg, Jülich Project Management Agency
in the Jülich Research Center, Karlsruhe Project Management Agency water technologies and disposal
(PTKA-WTE, KIT), Project Management Agency c/o
German Aerospace Center (PT-DLR), VDI- Technologiezentrum GmbH
Year founded
1973 (MOST), 2000 (MOITAL)
Support available
regular funding
research projects
•
•
•
•
cancer research
water technologies
research into civil security
marine sciences
Feasability studies on biotechnologies (Bio-disc)
biotechnologies (Bio-disc)
Young scientists exchange program in water technologies
water technologies
Summer/ winter schools cancer research
cancer research
Industrial Cooperation
research projects
•
•
•
Call for proposals
varies, depending on field
Initial contact
Internationales Büro
des BMBF im Projektträger beim DLR e.V.
Sabrina Legies
Tel.: +49 (0) 228-3821-1421
Sabrina.legies@dlr.de
biotechnologies (Bio-disc)
water technologies
research into civil security
http://www.internationales-buero.de/de/1639.php
http://www.cogeril.de/
sewage treatment, storage and reuse, investigation
and remediation of groundwater, processing of potable water, health aspects of potable water provision, and integrated water resources management.
The overall objective of the projects is to increase
the availability and quality of utilizable water.
Since 2000, the Young Scientists Exchange Program
(YSEP) has been offering everyone in the field – from
students pursuing degree programs to post-docs
– a way of spending up to six months researching
at partner institutions located in Germany and in
Israel.
Cooperation programs
16
BMBF’s stand at the 2007 edition of WATEC. This water and environmental technology trade fair was held in Tel Aviv.
Since 2008, manufacturers have been entitled to
carry out joint 2 + 2 projects. This is in conjunction
with the industrial R&D cooperation being staged in
the area of water technologies.
Multilateral water technology cooperation
Launched in 1997 was a multilateral consortium
project in which German, Israeli, Jordanian and
Palestinian research institutes are participating.
This transnational cooperation is being undertaken
to enhance the appreciation of the relationships
prevailing in the aquifers found in the Valley of the
Jordan, which is found between the Sea of Galilee
and the Dead Sea.
with Innovative Technologies. Pursuing SMART is
a consortium comprised of 17 partner institutions.
These are universities, research facilities, public
sector authorities, companies and NGOs from
Israel, the Palestinian Autonomous regions, Jordan
and Germany. The objective of this multidisciplinary project is the development of approaches to
integrated water resource management transferable to and in semi-arid regions. Entailed in this is
the comprehensive assessment of all utilizable –
This successful and multilateral water technology cooperation was pursued via the staging of
a second phase of support in 2000 – 2005. It was
expanded in mid-2002 to encompass an exchange
program for pre-docs at the institutes participating
in the project. The publication of a report on the
sustainable utilization of water resources found on
both sides of the Jordan marked the conclusion of
the project at the end of 2005.
Being implemented since 2006 has been a
multilateral project on the subject of integrated
water resources management in the Lower Jordan
Rift Valley. The project’s name is SMART – Sustainable Management of Available Water Resources
The committee for education and research of Germany’s parliament
visiting bilateral and multilateral water technology projects being
undertaken at the Dead Sea, December 2007. Leading the tour are Prof.
Heinz Hötzl, University of Karlsruhe (back row, at the left), and Prof.
Akiva Flexer, Tel Aviv University (front row, right).
Cooperation programs
and previously untapped – water resources found
in the project area, with this comprising ground
water, sewage, water with a high salt content
and flood water. Trans-project coordination has
enabled the project’s efforts to be configured to
accord with those of such other projects in the
region as GLOWA. Also set up was an exchange of
findings. Launched in 2010 was the second phase
of the project. Its objective is to set forth the successful activities of the first phase, and to enhance
the applicability of the findings ensuing from the
demonstration project. This will pave the way for a
full-scale implementation of them.
17
In January 2010, the German Federal Ministry
of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST)
decided to focus during the new period of the
German-Israeli cooperation in marine sciences on
the research field of “impacts of climate change on
oceanographic conditions and on coastal ecosystems”. To further this overall objective, proposals
are to focus on the topics of the increasing of water
temperature, acidification of seawater, shifts of water circulation, changing biodiversity and marine
genomics.
energy research
Marine sciences and geosciences
The working relationship with Israel in the area of
oceanography began in 1995. The topic of the first
German-Israeli consortium project was the development of biological indicators capable of being
used as an early warning system in seas in Israel (the
Mediterranean and Red Sea) and in Germany (North
Sea). The project features a pan-project evaluation
of statistics. The promulgation in 2002 of the action
plan for German-Israeli Cooperation in Marine Sciences and Geosciences induced the reconfiguration
of the area of cooperation. Focuses of the joint projects being undertaken since 2006 are the interactions between ocean, land and atmosphere; seismic
and other natural risks; and changes in marine
ecosystems serving as indicators of global change.
Support for the area of energy research was forthcoming from 1974–1998 from funds provided by
BMBF. Subsequent to that, the responsibility for the
program supporting energy research was transferred to Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economics
and Technology. In 2003, parts of the program
were reassigned to the Federal Ministry for the
Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. The working relationship with Israel
remains, however, part of the BMBF-MOITAL-MOST
cooperation.
Projects supported were initially primarily
in the area of solar energy research. Topics were
photovoltaics (the development of solar cells), and
the conservation and storage of energy. Today, the
thrust is the researching of solar, wind and hydraulic energy.
research into civil security
The overall political situation has joined with the
daily threat to its population of experiencing a
terror attack to give Israel unique capabilities in
the area of responding to new security challenges
and to scenarios of perils. The ever-stronger threats
posed by terrorism and natural disasters have also
caused Germany’s government to accord a high
priority to conducting research into civil security. This manifested itself in the launching at the
beginning of 2007 of the first proprietary research
program in this field.
Research into civil security is a new field of the German-Israeli working
relationship.
Israel and Germany intend to undertake scientific,
research and industrial projects teaming up their
expertise in civil security. Objective of this is the
18
Cooperation programs
protection of such mission-critical infrastructure
as energy and water supply systems and transport
(of passengers and freight) grids. The outcome is
to be the maintenance of the high level of security
enjoyed by citizens.
The initial and joint notification was undertaken
in 2009. It was followed by the selection of seven
projects for support. Objectives are the development of security-enhancing products and solutions, the expediting of innovation processes and,
through this, the securing of jointly-held competitive edges on international markets for high-tech
products and services.
Vocational education
The German-Israeli Program on Cooperation in
Vocational Education is operated by BMBF and MOITAL, and was commissioned in 1969. It is managed
by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), which is working on a commission
from BMBF.
The years of inception of the program were
devoted to providing in Germany qualifications to
Israeli professionals. As of 1976, professionals and
managers were given the opportunity of getting
to know the vocational education system of the
other country, with this being undertaken via trips
providing expert briefings. Workshops and bilateral
cooperation projects constitute the main forms of
inculcation.
The workshops offer German and Israeli professionals and managers a way of intensively exchanging their experience and expertise in such specialized areas of vocational education as ongoing
training in IT and as going into business for yourself
in the area of vocational education.
Laser and optical technologies
LASER 2000 was a BMBF program whose focus
within the working relationship with MOST was
the development of the technologies producing a new generation of lasers and new areas
of application for them. The cooperation was
reconfigured in 2004. The objective is now to
provide support to companies’ R&D projects. The
Israeli partner is now MOITAL’s Office of the Chief
Scientist (OCS).
The Program on Cooperation in Vocational Education staged by BMBF
and MOITAL provides experts and executives from Germany and Israel
with a way of getting to know the other country‘s vocational
education system.
Nanomaterials and chemical nanotechnologies
In 1995, the cooperation existing since 1981 between
BMBF and MOST in the area of materials engineering was revamped. In accordance with BMBF’s
then Ma-Tech program of materials research, the
new focuses of the cooperation were the developing
of magnesium alloys and of materials required in
advanced batteries.
The publication in 2003 of BMBF’s WING (short
in German for “innovative materials used by manufacturers and by society”) program marked the
introduction of a new model of cooperation for international projects. The model foresees at least two
partners from industrial and research from each
country’s forming part of the consortium project. In
receiving support, the research facility can serve as
either a subcontractor or an independent partner.
German partners receive support from BMBF; the Israeli ones from OCS/MOITAL. Current WING focuses
include computational material sciences, lightweight structures and electromagnetic materials.
Cooperation programs
19
German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific research and development (GIF)
finance its meeting of its responsibilities. The countries’ governments resolved to increase GIF’s capital
by €50 million during 2005 – 2007. This led to the
foundation capital’s now amounting to €211 million.
Interest revenues yield between €8 million and €10
million a year in available funds.
Headquartered in Jerusalem, the German-Israeli
Foundation for Scientific Research and Development (GIF) was founded in 1986. It is an independent, Israeli legal person.
The foundation’s Board of Governors is its decision-making body. Each country is equally represented on the Board, to which the respective ministers
of research as well as scientific personnel from both
countries belong. The selection of the recipients
of the foundation’s funding is made employing a
strict process of evaluation, in which experts from
Germany, Israel and other countries participate.
GIF’s template in this area is the selection procedure
The Foundation’s objective is the provision of
support to civil research and development projects
advancing the interests of both countries in the
areas of basic and applied research.
The Foundation uses the revenues arising from
interest paid upon its foundation capital – equally
supplied by both Israeli and German sources – to
German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific research and development (GIF)
locations
Jerusalem, Munich
year of founding
1986
Programs of funding
regular support
research programs
•
•
•
•
•
•
Support of young scientists
initial research by post-docs
•
•
•
•
Contact
fields of support: all disciplines of the sciences and
humanities, 2 year cycle
application eligibility: German and Israeli research
facilities
partner program: yes
amount of funding: max. €200,000
term of support: 3 years
call for proposals: yearly, in summer
disciplines: medical research, life and natural
sciences, humanities, social sciences
partner program: no
amount of support: max. €40,000
term of support: 1 year
Jerusalem:
Tel.: +972 (0) 2-6233814
E-Mail: gif-info@gif.org.il
Munich:
Ms. Leie
Tel.: +49 (0) 89-31873106
E-Mail: gif.leie@helmholtz-muenchen.de
Website
http://www.gif.org.il/
Cooperation programs
20
used by DFG (German Research Foundation), which
served as one of GIF’s role models in its founding
phase. The Board convenes, as a rule, once a year,
with Germany and Israel alternating as hosts.
GIF provides funding to some 40 projects a year.
As of October 2010, the foundation had approved
1,056 bilateral projects in all disciplines of science.
GIF had supplied a total of €174 million in funding.
The original average amount of funding came to
€175,000 per project. Since 2000, this average has
been at the €200,000 level. The term of funding
amounts to three years. Applications can only be
jointly submitted by German and Israeli researchers.
In 2006, a process of preliminary selection was
commenced. Applications, evaluations and ranking
procedures are now carried out electronically via
GIF’s Website.
GIF’s programs of funding are complemented by
the staging – on an alternating basis – of symposia
on current topics of research.
Launched in 2000 was a program for young scientists. It enables those scientists who are younger
than 40 years old and whose doctorate was awarded
less than seven years ago to submit, on an independent basis, an application for research funding. As of
2010, applications for 1,000 projects had been submitted. Of them, 244 had been awarded funding.
In November 2008, the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific
Research and Development (GIF) celebrated its 20th anniversary.
Guests of honor were Prof. Annette Schavan and Galeb Majadle,
Israel’s then Minister of Science, Culture and Sport.
1105
25%
1200
1000
653
16%
800
600
400
200
0
488
26%
404
21%
82
chemistry
432
16%
127
physics
Proposals
Grants
930
10%
615
19%
274
23%
75
280
65
108
material
mathematics environmental
and enginee­
and
sciences,
ring sciences computer
geosciences,
sciences
agriculture
Overview of applications and approvals since the founding of GIF and until 2010
95
life
sciences
medicine
118
humanities and
social sciences
Cooperation programs
21
German-Israeli Project Cooperation (dIP)
peration partners in Germany are scientists active in
the country’s science system. They are not entitled to
submit applications. Rather, they have to be proposed as cooperation partners by the Israeli side.
In 1996, BMBF created the German-Israeli Project
Cooperation (German abbreviation: DIP) to provide
support to advanced projects undertaken in bilateral
working relationships.
Up to 14 projects are proposed each year by the
research authorities of the Israeli facilities. Of these,
three or four projects are selected each year for
support, whose term is a maximum of five years, and
whose approved amount can be up to €1,655,000.
A subcommittee of DFG’s main committee makes
the selection. In doing such, it employs the expert
appraisals it has commissioned. The subcommittee
then relays its proposals as to recipients of support
to the main committee. The program was set up in
1996 by BMBF to be an instrument for the supporting of projects of especial relevance and topicality.
Since that time, 45 projects – in all disciplines – have
received funding. Focuses are in the disciplines of
physics, chemical biology and medicine. Nearly all
of the applications submitted have been classified by
appraisers as being of very high quality. The exceptionally high level of the applicants is indicated by
the conferring of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry upon
Prof. Aaron Ciechanover, who received support from
DIP from 1999–2003.
Since the beginning of 2008, DFG – German
Research Foundation has borne the responsibility
– transferred from BMBF – for the German-Israeli
Project Cooperation. This program of excellence
sets up the framework for the supporting of innovative research projects undertaken by Germans
and by Israelis. These projects are not subject to any
limitations of disciplines or topics. The process of
application features two steps. The Israeli facility
that has secured its eligibility to submit applications
conducts an in-house call for project proposals, and
then makes a selection. Each facility gets to submit
two proposals on joint research projects to the DFG.
The annual deadline for the submission of tenders is
March 31st. Eligible to submit proposals are Bar-Ilan
University, the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev,
University of Haifa and Technion Haifa, the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University and the
Weizmann Institute in Rehovot. Eligible to be coo-
German-Israeli Project Cooperation (dIP)
innovative and interdisciplinary projects featuring advanced research
administered by
DFG, Bonn
launched in
1996
fields of specialty
all
amount of support
max. €1,655,000
term of support
max. of five years
eligibility for application
Israeli universities and the Weizmann Institute
contact
Mr. Mühlberg
Tel.: +49 (0) 228-885-2347
E-Mail: Christoph.Muehlberg@dfg.de
Website
http://www.dfg.de/foerderung/
programme/internationales/
deutsch_israelische_projektkooperation/
index.html
Cooperation programs
22
Foundation Martin Buber Society of Fellows
in the Humanities
The Foundation Martin Buber Society of Fellows
in the Humanities at the Hebrew University,
Jerusalem, is a German foundation financed by
the Federal Ministry of Education and Research
(BMBF). Its objective is to foster inter-disciplinary
and inter-cultural academic discourse among outstanding young scholars from Israel and Germany
and with senior colleagues from around the world.
Research is carried out at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem.
The setting up of the Society ensued from an
initiative of Prof. Annette Schavan, Germany’s
Federal Minister of Education and Research, and of
Prof. Sarah Stroumsa, the Rector of the Hebrew University. The initiative has set itself the objective of
encouraging and supporting research undertaken
in a broad range of fields in the humanities and social sciences by young Israeli and German scholars
at the stage of post-doctoral studies (along with a
limited number of doctoral fellows).
To that end, the Foundation promotes path-breaking research of broad cultural meaning and relevance. In doing such, it creates a vibrant community
of scholars who have acquired a strong foundation
in their chosen discipline, who are willing and able
to embark upon broader, imaginative projects, and,
while doing such, who are exploring new disciplines and methodologies.
The Martin Buber Society of Fellows was officially
launched in February 2010 at an event attended by
Minister Schavan and by the President and Rector of
the Hebrew University.
A committee of scholars from Israel, Germany
and USA selected the first cohort of Fellows, who
started their work in September 2010.
In forging ties to their peers, the Fellows also
participate in bi-weekly colloquia and in workshops, field trips, and other cultural and academic
activities.
Foundation Martin Buber Society
of Fellows in the Humanities
Fellowships enabling on-site research
by pre-docs and post-docs
location
Hebrew University, Jerusalem
founding date
2009
fields
humanities and social sciences
items funded
lump sum allowance, travel expenses and accommodation
term of support
post-docs: 2 years
contact
Ms. Baron
Tel.: +972 (0) 2-5883901
E-Mail: buberso@mscc.huji.ac.il
Website
http://buberfellows.huji.ac.il/
Cooperation programs
23
Further activities
Laurentius Klein Chair for Biblical and ecumenical
Theology
The first ten Fellows to receive a scholarship from the Martin Buber Society grouped around Prof. David Shulman, the Society’s director
In March 2011, the committee selected the second
cohort of Fellows (five from Israel and five from
Germany). They will join those from the current
group who wish to extend their fellowship (subject
to review by the Academic Committee). Its first year
has demonstrated that the Society embodies the
ideal of creative scholarly cross-fertilization. An
asset is its wonderfully conducive setting of the ancient city of Jerusalem, cradle of religions and site
of cultural innovation for the last 3,000 years.
On February 4, 2010, Prof. Annette Schavan,
Germany’s Federal Minister of Education and
Research (BMBF), commissioned in Jerusalem’s Dormitio Abbey of the Benedictine Order the Laurentius
Klein Chair for Biblical and Ecumenical Theology.
The chair receives funds from BMBF and forms part
of Jerusalem’s Year of Ecumenical Theology Studies.
The Year was created in 1973. The program offers
German-speaking Catholic and Protestant students
the opportunity of spending two semesters in the
Holy Land. Support is also forthcoming in the form
of scholarships provided by DAAD. As of this writing,
900 interested parties had taken advantage of this
offer. The Chair’s first holder is Professor Margareta
Gruber, a Franciscan who herself participated in the
program during 1983–1984.
The setting up of the Laurentius Klein Chair
forms part of the efforts to follow up and sustain in
Israel the impetus ensuing from the German-Israel
Year for Science and Technology.
Young Scientists Contest
BMBF confers each year a special prize upon three
Israeli high school students who are among the winners of the Israel Young Scientists Contest.
The Young Scientists Contest is comparable to
Germany’s Jugend Forscht contest. Eligible are young
persons (between 15 and 20 years old) conducting
research projects in the natural sciences and humanities.
Students upon whom the special prize has been
conferred receive three weeks at a research facility or
at a university in Germany. Special programs – ones
configured to meet winner wishes – are then put
together for them there. BMBF has established this
prize to showcase in Israel the benefits of studying
and researching in Germany. Host in 2009 was
the RWTH Aachen; in 2010, the TUM in Munich.
The Israeli students and their escorting personnel
attend courses held at the universities or at research
institutes not affiliated with universities. These trips
also give the students the opportunity to get to know
Aachen, Munich and various other German cities.
EU and EUREKA
24
EU and EUREKA
�
european programs and initiatives
one of the most significant developments
over the past few years has been the progressive networking of Israel and europe in
the area of the sciences. during this time,
Israel has grown closer and closer to the majority of the other european research organizations and associations, be it in the form of
a full member or as an associated participant
having observer status.
Since 1996, Israel has been as associated partner of
the European Framework Research Program (FP).
The importance of European research to Israel is
shown by the large number of Israeli researchers
taking part in cooperation projects. The number
of projects featuring such a participation came to
588 in FP6, and 754 (so far) in FP7. Israeli institutions
are also involved in European-level networks, the
ERA-NETs and INCO-NETs. Israeli activities for the
research framework program are coordinated by
ISERD, an inter-ministerial directorate in which
MOITAL, MOST, the Council for Higher Education,
and the Israeli Ministries of Finance and of Foreign
Affairs are represented.
With this holding true for both FP6 and FP7,
Israel has forged the largest number of partnerships
with Germany in these cooperation projects, followed by – with the precise order depending upon the
framework – France, the UK and Italy.
The main topics of the Israeli projects and of
those featuring German participation are in the
fields of information and communication technologies (ICT), the life sciences, health research and the
nanotechnologies. Israel’s participation in FP7 also
takes the form of developing research infrastructures.
In addition to that, Israel is an active partner
in networking activities of the EU, the so called
ERA-Nets. Israel is taking part in 17 ERA nets and in
a further 4 ERA-Net+projects. The largest participation is that of the Ministry of Health (9 ERA nets) and
of the Ministry of Agriculture (6 ERA nets). MOST
is taking part in a single ERA net and in a single
ERA-Net+, both of which do not have any German
participation. Via ISERD, MATIMOP is taking part in
an ERA-Net+.
Israel has been since 1995 an associate member of the European Center for Nuclear Research
(CERN). Support for the Israeli scientists participating is provided by the Ministry of Industry, Trade
and Labor, the Ministry of Science and Technology,
the Israeli Science Foundation.
Israel has also been since 1999 an associate
member of the European Synchrotron Radiation
Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble. Israel supplies some 1% of
the ESRF’s budget. This equips Israeli scientists with
access to this large-sized research facility.
Israel is further a founding member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and of the
European Molecular Biology Labor (EMBL). The country is also member of the European Scientific Foundation and of the European Academy, and has been
granted observer status for the bodies of the OECD.
Concluded upon on March 17, 2004 was an
agreement between the EU and Israel setting up
the latter’s participation in the GALILEO program,
which implements Europe’s satellite navigation
grid initiative.
eUreKA
During Germany’s chair of EUREKA in 1999/2000 and
at the country’s initiative, Israel was admitted as a full
member to the European research initiative. Along
with the bilateral agreement in place between Israel
and Germany, EUREKA has offered for the last decade
another conduit for the technological cooperation
between Israeli and German companies and research
facilities. A highpoint of German-Israeli ties within
the framework of EUREKA came in July 2010, during
which Germany handed over the organization’s
presidency.
Israel’s participation in EUREKA takes the form of
taking part in 94 current projects, corresponding to
13% of the total number. Fifty-one projects featuring
participation by Israel have already been concluded.
Sixty-nine of the current projects are being led by
Israel. Eight projects feature German-Israeli cooperation.
A special thrust of the EUREKA projects featuring
Israeli participation is ICT. Activities in this area range from the designing of new processors and chipsets
to the developing of applied enterprise software
EU and EUREKA
25
Of all the countries in Europe, it is Germany with which Israel maintains the closest working relationships in the European Research Framework Program.
to research-driven small and medium-sized enterprises, and was jointly created in 2008 by EUREKA
and the European Commission.
and the setting up of emergency communication
systems. Projects from the fields of medicine and
biotechnologies enjoy especial interest. Being pursued are the development of medications alleviating
Alzheimer’s and the planning of new bioreactors.
CoST
The widespread interest in forming part of
EUREKA’s clusters has caused a stepping up of
Israel’s participation in them. As of this writing,
Israel is a partner in two of the six current umbrellas. German and Israeli companies are taking part in
five of the seven current clusters. These are in a wide
range of areas:
Since 1971 COST (Coopération européenne dans le
domaine de la recherche scientifique et technique
– “European cooperation in the field of scientific
and technological research”) has been providing
a framework for the European-wide coordination
of research undertaken on the national level in all
fields of science and technology.
• CELTIC (2003–2011): telecommunication
A total of 34 member countries as well as a large
number of facilities worldwide participate in the
program and work together in a variety of transdisciplinary networks. Israel is a cooperating partner in COST. As such, it is not entitled to vote in the
organization’s CSO (Council of Senior Officials) and
DC (Domain Committee). Israel is, however, a fullyeligible COST member country at the operations
level. As of this writing, Israel is involved in 115 of
the 223 COST measures currently being pursued. Of
these, Germany is also participating in 113 of them.
• CATRENE (2008–2012): nanoelectronics
• EURIPIDES (2006–2013): smart systems
• ITEA2 (2006–2014): software
• ACQUEAU (2009–2010): water technologies
Israel contributes €5 million a year – as much as
France or Germany, by way of an example – to Eurostars. This program is designed to provide support
26
Programs of German funding organizations and foundations
Programs of German funding organizations and foundations
Funding organizations
German research Foundation (dFG)
The working relationship between the DFG and Israel dates back to the 60s, and is partially based upon
an agreement reached in 1970 with the National
Council of Research and Development (NCRD) on an
exchange of scientists and on the joint funding of bilateral symposia. This cooperation is being pursued
today with the Ministry of Science and Technology
(MOST). In addition, in force since 1993 has been an
agreement on scientific cooperation with the Israel
Academy of Science and Humanities.
The goal of the working relationship maintained
since 1995 with the independent Israel Science
Foundation (ISF), whose responsibilities are similar to
those of the DFG, is to pursue the dialogue leading to
the development of joint ways of providing funding.
In the era preceding that, the support provided to
German-Israeli research projects by the DFG was primarily based on also providing co-financing of the
Israeli component of a cooperation involving a project whose application was placed using a standard
procedure. An applicant can only be the German
scientific partner in Germany. A considerable portion of the research projects was also funded within
the areas of special-purpose research maintained by
the DFG. The same applies to DFG’s priority programs, in which individual Israeli scientists can join
with German groups in participating in proprietary
subprojects.
In 1995, DFG became the first German organization to fund – via a dedicated program – trilateral
projects of cooperation between German, Israeli
and Palestinian scientists. These employ a two-step
procedure similar to the one used in German-Israeli
projects, and have the additional option of also
applying for further funds for the Palestinian group.
The preliminary applications are to be submitted on
April 1 and October 1 of the year. A limited number is
selected from these. These initiatives, in turn, then
begin upon the path of submitting a full-scale project
application.
As of mid-2010, 59 projects had been approved in
this program, including a number featuring participation by a Jordanian partner. Especially great
The business offices of the German Research Foundation (DFG) in Bonn
interest on the part of the Israelis is shown by the
Hebrew University.
The DFG is the self-governing and central organization of Germany’s science community.
Its prime object of support is research carried
out at the country’s institutions of higher
education in all disciplines. The DFG finances
research projects and fosters working relationships among researchers, advises parliaments and official bodies on scientific issues,
and encourages ties between the research
and business community and to non-German
scientists. DFG also advocates the interests
of research on the international level and
maintains bilateral scientific relationships
with a large number of states. A special area of
focus is the promoting of a pipeline of young
scientists.
The basis of DFG’s entire research is the funding of individual projects and research cooperation. The latter takes the forms of supporting specialized areas of research, research
centers, post-graduate and priority programs
and research groups, and research infrastructure (for instance: “Meteor”, the research ship;
and the IFQ Institute for Research Information
and Quality Securing). A further field of support is the maintenance of a library of science,
with this activity entailing the development of
new structures of information in institutions
of higher education. The DFG also facilitates
the supplying and replacing of large-sized devices needed by scientists staffing institutions
of higher education.
Programs of German funding organizations and foundations
Max Planck Society for the Advancement of
Science (MPG)
The longest standing pillar of MPG’s working relationship with Israel is the one set up with the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS). The organizations’
joint research initiatives lead to the constituting of
networks comprised of the institutes’ scientists and
to the education of young scientists. An example of
such is the working relationship maintained by the
International Max Planck Research Schools (IMPRS)
and the WIS’ Feinberg Graduate School.
Via its institutes, MPG has also forged ties to
Israel’s six universities. Especially worthy of note
is the multidisciplinary relationship maintained
with the Hebrew University. These close scientific
relationships have been conducive to getting access
to joint projects funded by European authorities.
The Max Planck Institutes have also been successfully using the funding instruments provided by such
German-Israeli organizations of research support as
the German Israeli Foundation (GIF) or the DIP program for German-Israeli project cooperation. The
total number of projects jointly undertaken by Max
Planck institutes and their partners in Israel came to
122 in 2009; that of Israeli scientists researching at
the Institutes to 95.
27
Max Planck Society (MPG) is the sole shareholder of Minerva Stiftung GmbH (see page
10). Operated employing funds provided by
Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and
Research, the Minerva Foundation forms part
of the Max Planck Society, so as to maintain
the former’s standards of scientific quality
and of science-driven processes of evaluation
in the funding of Israeli research.
For more than 60 years, MPG has stood for exceptional and results-oriented basic research
into the life and natural sciences and into the
humanities. In 1948, by being constituted as
a registered association, the MPG assumed
the succession to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft, which had been founded in 1911.
Some 20,400 persons work and research at
MPG’s 80 institutes and research facilities. Of
these, some 4,900 are permanently employed
scientists. A further 7,000 staff members in
laboratories are students, pre-docs, post-docs
and guest scientists. The 2009 budget of the
Max Planck Society came to some €1.3 billion.
Precondition for pursuing advanced research
and interdisciplinary thought is the maintenance of intensive working relationships with
scientists and research facilities located in Germany and abroad. The MPG’s 2,000 cooperation projects are being undertaken with nearly
6,000 partners in more than 100 countries.
There are, in addition, more than 40 partner
groups. Located in Asia, Eastern Europe and
South America, these groups pursue activities that include the setting up of a partner
institute in Shanghai and the founding of Max
Planck Centers in such places as India.
German Academic exchange Service (dAAd)
The celebration of 50 years of scientific cooperation between MPG and
the Weizmann Institute. Shown are the respective presidents, Peter Gruss
(second from the right) and Daniel Zajfman (3rd from the left), along with
Prof. Annette Schavan and the event’s hosts – Axel Springer AG’s Giuseppe Vita (far left), Friede Springer and Mathias Döpfner (far right).
Through the provision of scholarships, DAAD has
been participating since 1960 in the forging of
scientific working relationships. These scholarships
fund research by doctoral candidates and young
scientists, research sojourns by scientists, attendance
of summer courses offered by institutions of higher
28
Programs of German funding organizations and foundations
The German Academic Exchange Service
(DAAD) was founded in 1925, disbanded in
1945, and re-founded in 1950, this time as
a registered association under private law.
Entitled to be full members are institutions of
higher education represented in the conference of their rectors as well as the student
bodies of these institutions. As of 2009, 229
institutions of higher education and 123
student bodies were members of the DAAD.
The DAAD promotes academic exchange on
the international level, and is an organization conveying German culture, sciences and
development policies abroad. It also serves
as a “national agency” of and consultant
on European funding programs. The DAAD
provides information on Germany’s systems
of education (with this including higher
education), on higher education and degree
programs outside the country, and on sources
of support and scholarship. The DAAD also
funds the participation by students in more
than 250 programs (including graduate ones)
scientists and artists from both Germany and
aboard. Also using funds provided by the German government, it provides financing for
scientific exchanges and for special-purpose
programs availed upon by Germany’s young
scientists and promoting the internationalization of German institutions of higher
education.
education or involving the inculcation of foreign languages, studying in Israel by German students and
graduate students, trips of study, and the placing of
German teachers (and especially those specialized in
German language and studies) at Israeli universities.
The research scholarships provided by DAAD
are primarily utilized in Israel by doctoral candidates and young scientists mainly active in the
areas of the humanities (in Jewish studies), political science, sociology, history, art and music. In
2009, 23 Israelis received such a scholarship, with
a further 20 being awarded one for a language
course.
In the same year, seven German students (including graduate ones) and doctoral candidates
received scholarships to pursue in Israel their
studies of humanities and of the social and natural
sciences. A focus of DAAD’s activities in Israel is the
furnishing of partial scholarships to German theology students. Since the inceptions of the program
more than 30 years ago, some 700 such students
have received this support, which went in academic year 2009/2010 to 21 of them.
In addition and via IAESTE (International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical
Experience), 17 internships were arranged in 2009
for Israeli students, with the same number going
to German ones. In academic year 2000/2001, the
Walter Benjamin Chair was established at the
Department of German at the Hebrew University in
Jerusalem. Holders of the Chair have been renowned professors from Germany of German studies.
In 2009, DAAD also provided support to two
editorial offices and to two long-term lectureships
in Israel. In autumn 2007, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the University of Haifa each
launched the setting up of a center for German
studies. Each is receiving funding from DAAD, and
each is focusing on conducting interdisciplinary
research and teaching leading to a multifaceted,
scientific and ambitious scrutiny of post-1945 Germany and Europe.
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH)
Since 1960, the DAAD has provided several
hundred graduates of institutions of higher education with research scholarships capable of being extended. In 2009 alone, a total of 417 persons received
support from DAAD’s range of funding instruments.
Of them, 168 were Israeli students (including graduate ones), scientists, administrators and artists; and
249 were German students and scientists. The latter
mainly receive support enabling brief stays in Israel.
A number did, however, secure financing for stays of
two or more years.
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has provided Humboldt research scholarships enabling
151 Israeli scientists to undertake long-term
research sojourns in Germany. The Foundation has
also supplied Feodor Lynen research scholarships
permitting 15 young German scientists to conduct
long-term research in Israel. Nearly half of these
recipients are active in the natural sciences; with a
further 43% and 8% in the humanities and engineering. In January 1991 the Alexander von Humboldt
Programs of German funding organizations and foundations
29
Each year, thanks to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, more than 2,000 of the world’s leading scientists conduct research in Germany. Headquartered in Bonn-Bad Godesberg, the Foundation was founded in 1953.
Foundation reached an agreement with the Israeli
Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) foreseeing the reciprocal conferring of the Lise MeitnerAlexander von Humboldt Research Prize. Germany’s
Federal Ministry of Education and Research provides the funding for the country’s participation
in this area. As of this writing, a total of 97 Israeli
scientists had been awarded research prizes by the
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
Forty-nine Humboldt scholars are currently
working at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
A second local area of focus is formed by the 43
Humboldt scholars at Tel Aviv University. Corresponding figures for Weizmann Institute in Rehovot and for the University of Haifa and the Technion in that city are 19, 16 and 16 respectively. The
Association of Humboldt Alumni in Israel stages
on a regular basis annual get-togethers.
Of them, 14 researchers received the Max
Planck Prize for International Cooperation. It is
jointly conferred by the Alexander von Humboldt
Foundation and the Max Planck Society.
In conjunction with the Frontiers of Research
Program, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
has been holding since 2009 the German-Israeli
Frontiers of Humanities symposia. These interdisciplinary conferences for young Israeli and German
scholars are organized along with the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. They are held once a
year. Venue alternates between Germany and Israel.
The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation is
also in charge of the Bert Sakmann Foundation,
which was set up by this German scientist and
Nobel Laureate for Medicine. The latter foundation funds a series of lectures. These are held by
German and Israeli young scientists in the respective other country.
To foster the constituting of regional and scientific networks among the Humboldt scholars, the
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation supports
30
Programs of German funding organizations and foundations
Alexander von Humboldt was an explorer
and cosmopolitan who fought for the freedom to research. He was also a humanist and
a patron of young and brilliant scientists. In
1860, shortly prior to his death, the Alexander
von Humboldt Foundation for Natural Research and Travel was constituted. The prime
object of its support was until 1923 and the
inflation-caused loss of its foundation capital
the supporting of trips undertaken abroad by
German scientists for purposes of research.
The German government of the time founded
in 1925 a new Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Its purpose was primarily to support
stays by non-German students (with this later
being extended to include scientists and doctoral candidates) in Germany. This foundation ceased operations in 1945. On December
10, 1953, in response to an initiative launched
by former Humboldt guest scientists, today’s
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation was set
up by the Federal Republic of Germany. The
foundation is non-profit-and under private
law. Its headquarters are in Bonn Bad-Godesberg.
The foundation provides research scholarship and prices enabling highly-qualified
scientists from abroad to conduct long-term
research in Germany. The foundation also
fosters the relationships among scientists
ensuing from these activities. Its provision of
initial support also comprises a large range
of funding going to its alumni. The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation provides
young German scientists with Feodor Lynen
research scholarships enabling them to work
with former Humboldt guest scientists at
their home institutions. Since having been
relaunched, the Alexander von Humboldt
Foundation has provided support to more
than 24,000 scientists from more than 130
countries.
initiatives launched by Humboldt associations and
by the scholar themselves. This takes the form of
staging of “Humboldt lectures”. On the occasion of
the German Israeli Year of Science and Technology
in 2009, one such lecture – on “When Sciences and
Humanities meet” – was staged at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Held in March 2010 in BeerSheva and Jerusalem was the Humboldt lecture on
“Thirty years of German-Jewish studies”.
Political foundations
Friedrich ebert Foundation (FeS)
In 1978, through the commissioning of its office,
the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) became the
first German political foundation to be officially
represented in Israel. The office’s first projects were
undertaken with partners from Histadrut (Israel’s
organization of trade unions) and representatives of
the country’s social democrats.
Since that time, FES’ activities in Israel (www.
fes.org.il) have been expanded to comprise a broad
spectrum of topics. These are covered by securing
input from partners found in the realms of politics,
societal affairs, the sciences and culture. A central
thrust of the office’s work is the consolidation of
German-Israeli relationships. Its programs involve
the staging of everything from courses on leading
youth groups to joint workshops for union members
and programs of consultation providing German
politicians with specialized knowledge. A further focus is proactive commemorative work. FES’ striving
to come up with new approaches to the Holocaust
has led to its devoting itself over the past two years
to the topic of the ways in which the Shoah’s survivors helped build and shape the state of Israel and
ensure its survival. These efforts have constituted
a major contribution to the inner-Israeli debate on
this subject.
The large number of ethnic, social and political
conflicts has caused FES to forge working relationships with Israel partners. These are designed to
promote democracy, peace, equal opportunity and
social justice. These partners are both the affected
parties, with these including Israel’s PalestinianArabian minority and Russian-speaking Israelis. A
thrust of the foundation’s activities in this area is
working with young persons, and, by doing such,
Programs of German funding organizations and foundations
31
The Conference on Israeli Society and National Security was organised in cooperation with the Netanya Academic College.
fostering their involvement in political and social
processes. FES’ partners are also those making political and societal decisions in Israel and experts in
these fields. These partnerships lead to the formulation of hands-on, practicable solutions to a wide
range of problems.
FES’ support of the peace process in the Near
East takes the form of bringing together – deploying its regional-level network of offices and
contacts – representatives of a wide range of
nationalities, religions and political positions. The
primary objective is the inducing and fostering of
an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue. Taking part in the
corresponding projects are both politicians and
experts and representatives of civil societies. The
extraordinarily difficult political conditions prevailing impart to FES – since it is an international
and “neutral” NGO – an especially important and
sensitive role.
Working closely with DGB (Germany’s Association of Unions) and its member unions, FES has been
fostering societal dialogues in Israel. The objective
is supporting the social partners’ efforts to take
and become part of societal decision-making
processes and configuration. The Israeli partners
in this area are Histadrut (Israel’s organization of
unions), the country’s association of employers,
the Ministry of Labor and the courts of labor affairs.
FES also pursues the objective of playing a part
in the further development of European-Israeli
relationships. Working with renowned institutions
and high-ranking decision-makers on both sides,
the FES has managed over the past few years to
establish a stable network of dialogues and consultancies. These, in turn, have given important
impetus to the consolidation of Israeli-European
relationships.
In 2009, the Israeli office of the Friedrich Ebert
Foundation conducted some 100 measures and
activities in these five areas.
32
Programs of German funding organizations and foundations
Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom
(FNSF)
The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom
(FNSF) has been active in Israel since 1983. The
focus of its efforts has been since 2007 the “Liberal
Project”. Its objectives are the bringing together of
Israel’s liberals in the areas of politics, business and
societal affairs and the reviving of Israel’s liberal
movement. To realize these objectives, the foundation forges ties to liberal-minded organizations
and persons, and stages programs of adult political
education. Objects of these efforts are liberal political groups, liberal-minded multipliers and national
and ethnic minorities. The latter include Israel’s
Palestinian citizens and Russian immigrants.
The educational programs staged by the foundation and its partners cover such classic liberal topics
as individual freedom and democracy, rule of law,
free market economies and human rights. The programs also delineate such subjects’ pertinence to
such current developments as conflicts in the Near
East and intra-societal problems.
Other national and regional-level fields of activity are the fostering of the socio-political dialogue
between the Jewish majority and the Palestinian minority in Israel, the staging of a dedicated program
in this area, and the strengthening and promoting
of German/European relationships with Israel.
The FNSF offers Israeli students the opportunity
to take part in its program of scholarships. The foundation also maintains internships that are open to
highly qualified applicants from Germany and from
other European countries.
the dialogue-capability of citizens, to convey basic
values of democracy, and to foster the peace process
in the region. The objects of these efforts are highly
variegated, ranging from members of the lower
classes, teachers at a certain school and decisionmakers in administrative areas to high school
pupils, and Bedouin and Palestinian women.
The work of HSS is comprised of the staging of
seminars, courses, days of discussions, expert educational programs, teachers’ professional education
and citizens-related activities. Its partners are exclusively such NGOs as Shatil in Israel and Al Muntada
in the autonomous Palestinian regions.
Heinrich Böll Foundation
Located in Tel Aviv, the office for Israel of the Heinrich Böll Foundation launched operations in spring
1998.
The office is primarily active in four areas:
•� climate policies, environmental justice and sustainable development
•� democratic participation and reform
•� gender democracy
•� international relationships and dialogue
The Foundation works with a large number of highly diverse partners – NGOs, academic institutions,
decision-makers and other players – in undertaking
its activities in Israel.
Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSS)
The objectives of the work of the Hanns Seidel
Foundation in Israel and in the Palestinian areas are
the “strengthening of the civil society through the
facilitating of the communication between public
authorities and citizens in Israel and in the Palestinian areas”. This work concentrates itself upon improving the lot of minorities and marginalized groups
in society, and upon the fostering of citizen-friendly
administrative procedures.
This work is designed to reduce the divide
between societal and ethnic groups, to increase
A meeting with Israeli and Palestinian project partners in 2005
Programs of German funding organizations and foundations
33
International academic conference staged by KAS and by the Minerva Center for Human Rights in Jerusalem, Israel, December 2006
This work is pursued in the complex and multidimensional context of German-Jewish, GermanIsraeli and Israeli-Palestinian relationships, and of
the Israeli-Arabian conflict.
The programs of the Israel office of the Heinrich
Böll Foundation are funded by Germany’s Federal
Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Its annual volume of financing comes
to some €560,000.
The program of dialogues and networking funded by BMZ is complemented by the Foundation’s
supporting of the Leo Baeck Summer University,
which is staged every year at Berlin’s Humboldt
University. The Summer University is attended by a
group of students selected from institutions of higher education in the USA, Canada and Germany. The
students investigate topics involving Jewish life.
Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS)
The Konrad Adenauer Foundation has been
operating in Israel since 1980. Its primary objectives are the strengthening of democracy and
rule of law in Israel and the fostering of peaceful
coexistence between Israel and its neighbors and
among Israel’s various ethnic groups. Another
thrust is the maintenance and consolidation of the
relationships between Germany and Israel. These
efforts are increasingly being extended to encompass the Israeli-European dimension. In all three
areas, KAS works with universities and researchers
from Germany and Israel. The fostering of democracy and of rule of law is primarily undertaken
by KAS through the working relationships forged
with Israeli universities and scientists. The Foundation works with the Minerva Center for Human
Rights at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in
promoting at academic conferences international
dialogues on human rights and in emphasizing
the role of international law in resolving current conflicts. In cooperation with the Jerusalem
Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), KAS devotes itself
to the articulation and discussion of intra-Israel
social and political issues. International conferences and discussions among experts provide
a platform for the advancing of possible solutions. The promoting of the economic interests
shared by Israelis and Palestinians leads KAS to
support the Israel Palestine Center for Research
and Information (IPCRI). KAS’ working relationships with the Netanya Academic College, the
Truman Research Institute for the Advancement
of Peace at the Hebrew University, and the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies serve to foster the
34
Programs of German funding organizations and foundations
achieving of peaceful coexistence in the Near East.
Investigated at academic conferences are such
topics as the Israeli-Jordanian relationship and the
societal foundation for a setting forth of the peace
process. The role played by Arab citizens in Israeli
society and politics has been the subject since 2004
of the Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab
Working Relationships. The Program was founded
by KAS and by the University of Tel Aviv. KAS and
the Center for Bedouin Studies and Development
of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in BeerSheva research and support the integration of
Bedouins into Israel’s advanced society. KAS is also
active in the areas of German-Israeli and European-Israeli relations. Working with the Ben-Gurion
University in Beer-Sheva and with the Adenauer
Division for the Study of European Politics and Society located there, KAS organizes conferences and
workshops looking at the future of Israeli-European relations. Participants at KAS-organized events
include experts, decision-makers from Europe
and Israel, and, especially, the young in the field.
KAS’ close working relationship with the Helmut
Kohl Institute for European Studies at the Hebrew
University also serves to promote the consolidation
of Israeli-European relations. Lectures and simulation workshops inculcate Israel’s young scientists
with the basics of European politics and social life.
Private foundations
Bertelsmann Foundation
The activities of the Bertelsmann Foundation in
Israel are centered on fostering encounters and exchanges of expertise among young managers from
both countries. The relationship of Israelis and Germans in the years to come will be largely shaped
by such successful teaming ups and mastering of
shared challenges. To accomplish this, the German-Israeli Young Leaders Exchange was created
in 2000. Its object is to initiate and facilitate futureoriented dialogues between young German and
Israeli managers. Thrusts of the Exchange are the
dissemination of information and the setting up
of a network comprised of personal relationships.
Some 300 managers from the political, business,
media and cultural communities have participated
in the 11 programs hitherto staged. Annually-held
meetings of the network keep these participants
in intensive contact, and enable them to work on
topics of mutual interest.
Off to go rafting! German and Israeli participants in the Young Leaders
Exchange program of the Bertelsmann Foundation, 2002
The cooperation of the Bertelsmann Foundation
with the German-Israeli Future Forum takes the
form of staging the “X-Change for Competence.
Connecting Societies. Developing Leadership”
program. This implements a new approach to
developing the expertise of Israeli and German managers. These are especially active in the tertiary
sector.
This program provides a selected set of participants with the opportunity, in the four several-day
modules held during the course of the year, to
augment their management skills. The objective
behind this is enabling them to join others in successfully shaping societal and political processes of
change, to build bridges to players in their society,
and to strengthen partnerships existing between
Germany and Israel. The venue of the modules
alternates between Germany and Israel. The modules are comprised of program segments permitting the participants to get to know the societies
of both countries. The training sessions are carried
out by a team comprised of Germans and Israelis.
The participants’ defraying part of the session’s
costs is foreseen.
The program has been designed to meet the
needs of executives of between 30–45 years old
who are responsible for staff members, who have
managerial experience, and who work for companies in the tertiary sector.
Programs of German funding organizations and foundations
Fritz Thyssen Foundation
Headquartered in Cologne, the Fritz Thyssen Foundation was founded in 1959 by Ms. Amélie Thyssen
and by her daughter Anita Countess Zichy-Thyssen
to commemorate August and Fritz Thyssen. It was
the first private foundation devoting itself to the
sciences to be set up in post-World War II Germany. The foundation operates scholarship and
exchange programs involving Israeli institutions.
The foundation also provides support to projects
being undertaken by Israeli researchers, and
stages scientific conferences and lecture series
in Israel. The foundation also supports the participation by Israeli researcher in corresponding
activities in Germany.
Objects of support by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation are primarily found in the humanities. The
focus in the area of “history, language and culture” is constituted by projects which could be described as involving “cultural sciences” and which
feature an interdisciplinary outreach to the social
sciences. Also taken into account are the research
traditions of the “classic” disciplines of the humanities – philosophy, theology and archeology.
The “government, business community and
society” area of the foundation provides support to
research projects investigating the preconditions
for and results of the processes of transformation
characterizing today’s society. The area devotes
35
itself to projects capable of being viewed as involving economics, jurisprudence, political sciences
and ethnology.
The “molecular causes of diseases” area investigates illnesses caused by genetic defects or shaped
by genetic factors. The latter involve complex
diseases.
One current project being supported by the
foundation’s humanities area is the one having
been undertaken since 2007 by Professor Aliza
Cohen-Mushlin, who works for the Jerusalembased Hebrew University’s Center for Jewish Art.
The project’s objective is the documentation and
editing of illustrated Hebrew scripts. Created from
the 13th to the 18th century, they form part of the
collection of the Bavarian State Library.
Also receiving support from the foundation is
another project being undertaken at the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem. This one involves the
molecular bases and causes of Parkinson’s, and is
being carried out by Hermona Soreq and Hagai
Bergman. A further project accorded support is
being implemented at the Weizmann Institute in
Rehovot. In it, Dr. Avraham Yaron is researching
processes of protein production and their influence upon the somatosensory system. Employing a
large number of sensory cells, this system provides
us with a precise depiction of our body’s condition,
and of its interactions with its environment.
One project being supported by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation deals with the documentation and editing of illustrated Hebrew scripts from the 13th
to the 18th century. The photograph shows excerpts from a commentary on the bible made in 1233 and forming part of the collections of the Bavarian
State Library.
36
Programs of German funding organizations and foundations
Hubert Burda Foundation
Volkswagen Foundation
The Hubert Burda Foundation concentrates its
activities in Israel upon cultivating its working
relationship with the Ben-Gurion University (BGU)
in Beer-Sheva. It was here that Dr. Hubert Burda, a
publisher, founded in 1999 the Hubert Burda Center
of Innovative Communications. The Center fosters
intercultural and future-oriented exchanges between media scientists, companies and politicians.
Since having been founded in 1961, the Volkswagen
Foundation has been providing a wide variety of
support to research being jointly undertaken by
Israel and by Germany. The first amount of support
came to DeutschMarks 2 million. It was in 1963, and
went to acquire equipment and to pay personnel
working in the physics and physical biology schools
of the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot.
A current project is the Good Neighbors Blog
(http://gnblog.com). The Website was set up in May
2007 and has since then assembled contributions
from authors based in Egypt, Israel, Iraq, Iran,
Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and
Syria. Young persons from the Middle East use the
blog as the platform for the exchanging of information and ideas transcending countries and disciplines. The blog’s offerings are read by more than
30,000 people each month.
The foundation has also devoted its resources to
facilitating the founding of institutions. It donated in 1964 some DeutschMarks 354,000 for the
commissioning of the Institute for Geography at
the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Funding from
the foundation went in 1970 to the University of
Tel Aviv’s Institute for International Relations and
Institute for German History.
The interdisciplinary and international transfer
of knowledge plays a key role in the cultivating of
a society open to and tolerant of political trends
and forthcoming developments. To achieve these
traits, Hubert Burda Media also provides support to
research projects being undertaken by the students
at the University. These are presented at the annual
BGU Project Days, which are highly regarded in
Israel.
In 2004, the Volkswagen Foundation financed
the pilot phase of the German Innovation Center
(GIC), which forms part of the Interdisciplinary
Center in Herzliya. The GIC’s objective is to showcase
Germany’s scientific achievements to Israel’s academic community.
This partnership does not stop at the campus’
borders. By way of an example: Dr. Hubert Burda
and Dr. Joseph Vardi, an Israeli who invests in hightech companies, serve as patrons of Digital Life
Design, an annual international conference on the
digital lifestyle. More than 150 Israeli entrepreneurs
and investors attended the January 2010 installment
– the sixth all told – of the conference. It was held in
Munich.
The foundation’s activities in Israel also comprise
the fostering of exchanges between German and
Israeli scientists. In the period extending to 1968,
the foundation funded – via a program of exchange
among holders of scholarships – more than 80
sojourns by German researchers at the Weizmann
Institute as well as those by Israeli scientists in
Germany. Also receiving support was an exchange
between students of economics and social sciences.
This was between the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and
the Tel Aviv-based Fritz Foundation. The Volkswagen Foundation also funded a program of exchange
involving the Max Born Chair of Natural Philosophy
at the Hebrew University.
A further aspect of the involvement of the Hubert Burda Foundation in Israel is the provision of
support to the education of academicians in Israel.
This represents a setting forth of the tradition of
Jewish-German thought. Dr. Hubert Burda’s efforts
on behalf of Israel led to his receiving on November
2, 2006 the Leo Baeck Prize. Conferred by Charlotte
Knobloch, this prize stems from the Central Council
of Jews in Germany.
The foundation has a longstanding commitment
to supporting German-Israeli cooperation projects.
Since 1977, the foundation has been routing its
activities in this area via the state of Lower Saxony’s
Ministry of Sciences and Culture. The foundation
has also been conducting an independent program
that forms part of the so-called “Lower Saxony to
the forefront”. This entails the provision of support
to the sciences. Objects are especially institutions of
Programs of German funding organizations and foundations
37
A doctoral candidate from Haifa’s Technion takes a sample from the Mediterranean in August 2007. This project is being funded by the Volkswagen
Foundation, and is designed to improve our understanding of how microbiological life survives in the world’s oceans.
higher education and research facilities located in
Lower Saxony. The recipients of the support, whose
term of provision ranges from two to three years, are
primarily the Jerusalem-based Hebrew University
and the Technion in Haifa. Since 1977, more than 280
joint projects were supplied with some €26 million
in support. These funds were equally split among
partners in Lower Saxony and in Israel. The objects of
the research are scientific – focuses are medicine, the
natural sciences and engineering – in nature.
ZeIT Foundation
The Hamburg-based ZEIT Foundation Ebelin and
Gerd Bucerius focuses its support of the sciences in
Israel on the University of Haifa, which is home to the
Bucerius Institute for Research into Contemporary
German History and Society. Founded by the foundation, the Center serves as the venue for long-term and
on-site researching by young scientists and for guest
professorships. The Institute also stages prominentlyattended conferences, series of lectures and public
events. The Bucerius Institute also serves as Israel’s
window to Europe. It fosters the dialogue on topics
currently gripping society. The Institute facilitates
exchanges between young scientists.
Offered since 2008 has been the Manfred Lahnstein Scholarship. It is given to two or three pre-docs
in any of the disciplines offered at the University of
Haifa. The scholarship enables a 10-month stay at
the university, and can be used for the writing of a
dissertation.
The ZEIT Foundation also provides support to a
wide range of research projects at the University of
Haifa’s Center for Multiculturalism and Educational Research, its Jewish-Arab Center for Brain and
Behavior Research. The foundation also supports
the Community Leaders project initiated by the
Circle of German Friends of the University of Haifa.
The project helps Arab students secure the requisite
qualifications.
A further activity of the foundation in Israel is the
annual staging of Bucerius Lectures in Jerusalem.
Its partner is the Mishkenot Sha‘ananim conference
center. Guests since 2005 – each of them in autumn
of the year – have included Prof. Gesine Schwan, Wolf
Biermann and Prof. Jutta Limbach.
Research and education in Israel
38
Research and education in Israel
�
Nearly a fifth of the civil research and development in Israel is conducted at its six
universities, at the weizmann Institute and
at the large number of state and public
sector research facilities. A large part of the
research work is undertaken at the country’s
clinics and by the numerous public sector
companies in the country. These are in the
fields of telecommunication, water supply
and electricity and other forms of energy generation and provision. The predominance of
research and development in the country is,
however, undertaken by its manufacturers.
Universities
Basic research is nearly exclusively carried out by
Israel’s universities and by the Weizmann Institute.
The facilities strive to perform in the greatest possible number of disciplines, and to do so at the cutting
edge of international research. Further emphases
stem from the universities and from Israel’s government, which have set up Centers of Excellence in a
set of select fields. These are staffed by excellent researchers or devote themselves to topics promising
to play a major role in forthcoming technological
development.
In addition, and since the mid-1990s, Israel’s universities have been taking on applied research. This
trend has been augmented by the country’s being
included in European-level research programs.
Some 15% of all patents granted in Israel are held by
an institution of higher education or by a member
of it. Israel’s institutions of higher education have
long maintained subsidiaries charged with assisting
them in the marketing of their scientific findings
and with the carrying out of CRO (commissioned
research orders) for companies based in Israel and
abroad. The government supports the universities
in their facilitating of manufacturers’ taking on of
prospective technologies. To this end, industrial
parks have been set up in the vicinity of the institutions of higher education.
Almost half of the universities’ budgets stems,
as a rule, from the state. The allocation of these is
undertaken using a formula taking into account
the number and quality of the institution’s scholarships and research findings, of the level of
teaching and of student achievements. The rest
of the universities’ funds come from tuition, third
party funds – with these including those from such
bilateral foundations as the German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and Development
(GIF) – and from CROs (see above). Prime source of
such orders are EU programs. Further sources of
financing are the tightly woven networks comprised of non-Israeli friends of the institutions and of
Jewish organizations and private donors. The latter
groups are primarily found in the USA.
The universities can also avail themselves of
funding provided to research projects whose financing is channeled via special-purpose vehicles
from the public sector’s budgets. With its responsibilities being comparable to those of DFG (the
German Research Foundation), the Israel Science
Foundation (ISF) provided in 2007– 2009 some
$US59 million to the funding of projects.
Public sector research facilities
In addition to the universities and to the Weizmann Institute, Israel is also home to a variety of
special-purpose research facilities. The Israel Space
Agency (ISA) forms part of the country’s Ministry
of Science and Technology (MOST). The agency
has been supporting and coordinating since 1983
a small-scale program in Israel of space research.
The current thrust of the ISA is developing the infrastructure underpinning such research. The ISA
is also pursuing such projects as the development
of TechSAT, a small satellite which was launched in
1998 and which is still in operation, and of VENµS,
a micro-satellite created along with CNES (France’s
space organization). The successes achieved by
Israel’s space program include the launching of
AMOS (the country’s first geostationary telecommunication satellite), and of a number of Ofeq
geomonitoring satellites. A high point of Israel’s
space program came in January 2003, with the participation of Israel’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, in
the 28th flight of the Space Shuttle. This pioneering
feat had, however, a tragic end. All of the mission’s
seven astronauts were killed during the Shuttle’s
reentry into the atmosphere.
Research and education in Israel
Also known as the “Volcani Center”, the Agricultural Research Organization (ARO) forms part of the
Ministry of Agriculture. The ARO maintains seven
institutes, and is the leading researcher into agricultural innovation in Israel.
Forming part of the Ministry of National Infrastructures, the Earth Science Administration operates the following three research facilities:
•� Geological Survey of Israel
•� Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research
Institute
•� Geophysical Institute of Israel
Directly assigned to the Office of the Prime Minister
is a further facility – the Israel Institute for Biological
Research. Pursued at it is research – both basic
and applied – in the areas of the biotechnologies,
pharmacology and toxicology.
Ministry of Science and Technology
The objectives of the Ministry of Science and Technology are the implementation of Israel’s national
research programs, the supporting and initiating
of the development of new technologies, and the
exploiting of the economic potential contained in
scientific findings. Between 1995–2007, the Ministry
invested $US173 million in supporting a program
intermeshing strategic and basic and applied
research. This program focused on the areas of IT,
biotechnologies, electro-optronics, microelectronics, materials engineering, and environmental
technologies (water quality). MOST also funds
interdisciplinary research. This especially entails
forging ties between the life and natural sciences.
MOST supplies support to special-purpose scientific centers providing all on-site members of the
scientific community with access to state-of-theart technologies and facilities. In a further move,
MOST dispenses funding going to research and
development centers located in areas with weaklyperforming economies. The Ministry is also responsible for the development and implementation of
international-level and intergovernmental scientific relationships, of bilateral arrangements, and
of the participation in such international scientific
organization as the OECD, EMBL and CERN.
39
Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor
The large budget possessed by the Ministry of
Industry, Trade and Labor (MOITAL) makes it a big
player in the field of state-supported research. The
prime objects of MOITAL’s funding are manufacturers, along with the working relationships between
them and institutions of higher education set up to
conduct research solving problems.
As is the case with many ministries in Israel,
MOITAL has an Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS).
This consulting body dispenses financial assistance.
The international-level R&D program undertaken
by MOITAL-OCS is supported and implemented by
MATIMOP (Israeli Industry Center for R&D). Comprised in this are such European, bilateral and multilateral programs as EUREKA, Eurostars, Galileo,
the 7th Framework Research Program (FP7), and
the Framework Program for Competitiveness and
Innovation (CIP).
The MOITAL-OCS had a budget of some $US270
million in 2011 and 2012. Of that, a considerable part
stemmed from repayments from companies whose
successes ensued from support provided by the R&D
fund. The moneys are to go to the supporting of new
projects. An allocation of funds among special-purpose programs is not undertaken. Prime among the
sectors supported are communication technologies,
electronics and software. These are followed by medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, biotechnologies
and chemicals.
In addition to the R&D fund, the OCS maintains
other programs of support. These are designed to
foster the innovativeness of companies, to intensify the working relationships between them and
research facilities, and to ease the transferring of
technologies. The following programs do not require the repaying from earnings of grants:
Generic r&d program
This program encourages companies making largescale R&D investments to allocate a large portion
of these funds to transdisciplinary, long-term R &D
measures. Grants amount to up to 50% of the approved budget.
Research and education in Israel
40
MAGNeT program
NoFAr
This supports the formation of consortia comprised
of manufacturers and of academic facilities and
dedicated to the joint pursuing of broad-spanning
and pre-marketable technologies. The program is
comparable to those undertaking consortium research on the German and European levels. Grants
amount to up to 66% of the approved budget for
manufacturers, and up to 80% for academic facilities
for 3–5 years. In the pre-marketing area, the program provides support to projects whose consortia
are comprised of at least two companies and one
research facility. The average amount of funding
per consortium comes to $US5–6 million.
NOFAR is also part of the MAGNET program. It
supports the transfer of technologies in the areas
of biotechnologies and nanotechnologies. Grants
amount to up to 90% of the approved budget (max.
$US100.000 ), for 12–15 months.
MAGNeToN program
This program is a small-sized version of the MAGNET
program, of which it actually forms part. MAGNETON fosters working relationships between a company and a program of academic research, and thus
the transferring of technologies from the scientific
to the business communities. Grants amount to up
to 66% of the approved budget (max. $US800.000),
for up to 24 months. This program has progressively
gained in importance over the past few years.
Technological incubators
Technological incubators (TIs) play an important
role in the facilitating of technology transfers.
These non-profit organizations provide support to
companies during their founding phase and in the
development of their innovative technologies. The
TIs also facilitate the starting up of new business
projects that could attract private investors. During
the initial two years of the project, the incubator,
which holds a 20% stake in this venture, handles the
entire administration of the company’s affairs and,
moreover, the inculcation of its personnel in the
basics of business administration.
The program enables private investors to
become owners of the incubator and to invest in
the companies coming into being in it at an early
stage. Grants amount to up to 85% of the approved
expenditures.
Spending on research and development (r&d) in Israel
Israel
Year
US$8,794.4 m
2009
US$964,414.1 m
2008
4.27 %
2009
2.34 %
2008
Year-on-year growth in r&d spending
-6.71 %
2009
6.2 %
2008
Public sector r&d expenditures – share of GdP
0.68 %
2007
0.65 %
2008
Public r&d expenditure
14.2 %
2007
27.7 %
2008
Private r&d expenditure
79.5 %
2007
64.5 %
2008
US$164,362.0 m
2008
National r&d expenditure
Percentage of GdP spent on r&d
r&d expenditure from foreign sources
r&d expenditures for universities
Triadic patent families
Share of total triad patents
oeCd overall
Year
2.8 %
2007
US$1,117.8 m
2009
389
2008
46.691
2008
0.81 %
2008
97.38 %
2008
Expenditures for research and development (R&D) in Israel. Source: OECD Main Science and Technology Indicators, 2010/2
Research and education in Israel
Twenty-two of 24 incubator projects managed in
the years 2002-2008 to secure private investment.
In 2010, OCS approved 13 new incubator projects.
These had a total volume of €5 million. Several of
them are in the area of medical technologies. The
TNUFA programme also promotes the transferring
of technologies. The programme’s support goes to
the early phases of projects being undertaken by
individuals and by start-ups. The support amounts
to up to 85% of the approved budget (at most: $US
50,000). It also comprises feasibility studies and
preparations for patent applications.
Ministry of education
The Ministry of Education is responsible for all phases of education, starting with preschool and extending to university degree programs. The minister of
education chairs the Council for Higher Education
(CHE) and names its general director.
Council of Higher education
Its Act of Constitution of 1958 makes the CHE the
main body of management and budgeting for
Israeli’s institutions of higher education, for the
Weizmann Institute and for the majority of the
colleges. The CHE’s main responsibilities are the
accrediting of new institutions of higher education,
the authorization of new faculties and degree programs, the granting of the right to bestow academic
degrees, the allocation of budgetary funds to institutions of higher education, and the carrying out of
reforms of the institutions of higher education. The
minister of education chairs the CHE.
Instruments of research support
The Israeli Government’s work in R&D is supported
by the National Council for Research and Development (NCRD), which was created in 2004 by
the Knesset, and which is comprised of 15 members. These are from the scientific, technological
and industrial sectors. The NCRD serves as the
government’s consultants on national research
and development policies, with this including the
dispensing of the budget.
41
The prime responsibility of the Israel Academy
of Sciences and Humanities is the cultivation of
relationships with international non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and the conclusion of bilateral cooperation agreements. The IASH’s role as a
consulting body enables it to exert influence upon
Israel’s research policies and upon its decentralized
research community. An instrument for doing such
is its nominating researchers for the Israel Prize,
which is conferred by the Ministry of Education for
special achievements in a variety of fields.
Spun off in 1972 from the Academy, the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) is becoming an increasingly
important source of financing for the basic research
conducted by the country’s universities. Its annual
budget started out as a modest $US300,000 a year.
It has by now grown to nearly $US59 million. It is to
further increase to $US80 million over the next few
years. Some $US 1.5 million of the ISF’s budget stems
from private donors and foundations. The main
responsibilities of the ISF consist of funding projects,
granting research scholarships, managing the new
FIRST program, and providing financing for infrastructural measures and for large-sized devices.
42
Israel’s institutions of higher education and their research facilities
Israel’s institutions of higher education and their research facilities
�
Some 142,600 students are enrolled in
Israel’s six universities and in the weizmann
Institute. The latter exclusively offers further
qualifications for scientists holding degrees.
Also in Israel is a remote access university, the Open
University, with an enrollment of 36,700 students
as well as 31 colleges with some 63,200 students. A
number of these institutions carry out an increasing
amount of research. Also taking advantage of these
offerings are a further 10,000 students outside Israel
– of them 1,000 in Germany – and those attending
non-Israeli universities – with these mostly being
the offshoots of British and American ones – in
Israel.
The colleges are playing an increasingly important role in professional education. Their total
enrollment has more than doubled over the past
six years, with this primarily occurring in engineering. The colleges have a focus similar of that of
Germany’s institutions of higher education. They
provide students with a wide-scope access to higher
education aligned to meet the needs of future professions. Israel’s universities place a high priority on
fostering a pipeline of young scientists.
The social sciences and humanities account for
more than 60% of the students’ majors, with the natural sciences and engineering responsible for 30%.
A further 6% is attributable to medicine.
Women account for some 55% of the matriculating students. Military service is long. This fact
explains the relatively – by international standards
– advanced age of 20–22 of enrollment in higher
education. Tuition at Israeli universities averages
$US 2,500 per student per year. 40 % of the country’s
students do, however, receive scholarships and
other forms of support from a range of public sector
and special-purpose programs.
Bar-Ilan University (BIU)
Established in 1955, Bar-Ilan University (BIU) is today
the largest and fastest growing university in Israel,
with a student population of approximately 40,000 at
its main campus in Ramat Gan and at the four regional
colleges operating under its auspices.
Haifa
Tel Aviv
Rehovot
Jerusalem
Beer Sheva
In recent years, BIU strengthened its research infrastructure. To help it achieve this goal, BIU supports
76 research centers and hosts 66 academic chairs.
Among BIU’s research centers are four flagship
facilities:
•� The Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced
Materials
•� The Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center
•� The Biophysical Interdisciplinary Schottenstein
Center for the Research and Technology of the
Cellome
•� The Bar-Ilan Institute of Superconductivity
In addition, BIU attracts top quality scientists worldwide by
•� granting Presidential and other scholarships to
the most talented graduate students and researchers
•� forging global research partnerships with 59
international universities and research centers,
including 13 with institutions in Germany
Israel’s institutions of higher education and their research facilities
43
Bar-Ilan University
The Israeli government has awarded the establishment of the country’s fifth school of medicine
to BIU. The new faculty, which will open for the
2011–2012 academic year, will be located in the historic Galilee city of Safed. The BIU Faculty of Medicine
will answer the underdeveloped North‘s need for a
critical mass of top-level medical care and research.
The Faculty will also serve as a major source of development for the region‘s economy and quality of
life. It will boost the level of community medicine in
the region to the highest standards of health access
and delivery.
BIU has placed a major emphasis on substantially increasing its research revenues. These have
risen from $US15.6 million to $US20.1 million
during the last two fiscal years. During this period,
BIU also won four EU FP7 ERC grants totaling more
than €6 million. BIU has also developed unique
interdisciplinary study programs and has intensi-
fied research and instruction in such cutting-edge
fields of R&D as renewable energy, information
security, biotechnologies, nanotechnologies, and
brain research.
working relationships with German institutions
of higher education
Germany-BIU undertakings form an essential
component of BIU’s research portfolio. The trend
impelling academic research is towards regional
and global partnerships. Taking part in this, BIU and
its German colleagues participate in innovative and
creative projects. These are funded by some of the
most prestigious sponsors in the research community. BIU has received funding through a variety of
programs. These include Minerva, DIP, GIF, MPG,
BMBF-MOST, and the DFG. Several of the EU‘s most
successful networks were spawned by collaborative
projects between BIU and German researchers.
Israel’s institutions of higher education and their research facilities
44
Bar-Ilan University
location
Ramat Gan
year of founding
1955
enrollment
40,000 at the main campus in Ramat Gan and at the
four regional colleges operating under its auspices – in
the Jordan Valley, in Safed, in the western Galilee, and
in Ashkelon.
staff members
616 faculty members
1,000 administrative & technical staff members
Faculties
The Faculty of Jewish Studies
The Faculty of Humanities
The Faculty of Social Sciences
The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences
The Faculty of Exact Sciences
The Faculty of Law
The Faculty of Medicine - to be opened for the 2011/2012
school year.
Website
http://www1.biu.ac.il
These partnerships have helped propel BIU to the
forefront of the scientific, humanistic and professional arenas. This achievement, in turn, has
enabled its faculties to provide its students, including those from the Federal Republic of Germany,
with a superior education, and to offer scholars
unique research collaboration opportunities. The
wide range of joint research programs has also
enabled Bar-Ilan to attract first-rate academics.
German-BIU scientific and technology projects,
academic exchange programs, and research
networks and partnerships form an essential
and growing component of BIU’s research
portfolio. To set forth and strengthen these ties,
BIU will dedicate its human, financial, and technological resources to recruiting post-doctoral
students, to expanding its academic exchange
programs, and to increasing collaboration in
both basic and commercial research ventures.
Prof. Harold Basch, Vice-President for R&D, BarIlan University
Israel’s institutions of higher education and their research facilities
45
Ben-Gurion University
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU)
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev was established in 1969 to bring about the development of the
Negev, the desert comprising more than 60 % of
the country. The founding of the University was inspired by the vision of Israel‘s first prime minister,
David Ben-Gurion, who believed that the future of
the country lay in this region.
Today, Ben-Gurion University is a major center
for teaching and research. These are conducted on
its campuses in Beer-Sheva, including the Marcus
Family Campus, as well as in Eilat and in Sede
Boqer, where Ben-Gurion spent his final years and
where he is buried. More than 19,000 students are
enrolled in the University’s Faculties of Engineering Sciences, Health Sciences, Natural Sciences,
Humanities and Social Sciences, the Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management and the
Kreitman School of Advanced Graduate Studies.
The University also includes such major research
institutes as the National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev, the Jacob Blaustein Institutes
for Desert Research (which include the Albert Katz
International School for Desert Studies), and the
Ben-Gurion Research Institute for the Study of
Israel and Zionism. New interdisciplinary degree
programs are redefining the boundaries between
the faculties and attracting outstanding students.
The University’s world-famous Joyce and Irving
Goldman Medical School has become a model for
community-oriented and global medicine. The
University’s social work and education degree programs supply Beer-Sheva and its region with the
majority of its social services personnel.
In keeping with its mandate, Ben-Gurion
University plays a key role in promoting industry,
agriculture and education in the Negev. University-sponsored community colleges and pre-academic and continuing education programs make
learning accessible to ever-greater numbers of Negev residents, while a myriad of community action
Israel’s institutions of higher education and their research facilities
46
programs involving over half of the student body
benefit the various communities in the region.
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is proud
of its research relationships with German
research institutes and companies. Not only
do we have many bilateral cooperation programs – in computer science, cancer research,
regional cooperation, water, biotech and
bioengineering to name but a few – but we
also frequently look to each other first when
seeking partners for FP7 collaborations. We
look forward to continuing and expanding this
fruitful cooperation.
Ben-Gurion University is part of the global
academic community. Its researchers share on the
international level their expertise in such fields as
IT, nanotechnologies, medicine, arid zone agriculture, solar energy, water resource management
and biotechnologies. The University anticipates
the arising and exploiting of exciting challenges
in innovative fields of research and hopes to bring
new opportunities to Beer-Sheva and the Negev
while continuing its pursuit of academic excellence and exchange.
Prof. Moti Herskowitz, Vice President for R&D,
Ben-Gurion University
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
location
Beer-Sheva
year of founding
1969
enrollment
some 19,000
staff members
some 1000 academic, some 1250 administrative and
technical
faculties/institutes
6
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty for
Health Sciences, Faculty of Engineering, Faculty for
Natural Sciences, Gilford Glazer Faculty of Business and
Management, The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert
Research
Website
http://web.bgu.ac.il
Israel’s institutions of higher education and their research facilities
47
described the university on the occasion of Albert
Einstein’s inaugural lecture in 1923) revolved mainly
around two fields: the natural sciences and Jewish
studies. In addition to researching the flora and
fauna of the region, studying the country’s geology
and geography, and fighting the diseases that were
prevalent in the area (such as malaria), the Hebrew
University also contributed to the revival of Hebrew
by insisting that it be the language of instruction.
This led to Hebrew’s being adapted to meet the
requirements of scientific work.
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI)
In 1882, Hermann Zwi Shapira, a Heidelberg-based
professor of mathematics, published an essay
outlining plans for the establishment of a Jewish
university in Palestine. In subsequent years, this
idea was taken up by the same intellectuals who
were striving to create a Jewish state. Their vision
foresaw the university’s serving as the intellectual,
cultural and scientific node of the Jewish people
and society that would arise once more in the land
of their ancestors. This dream came true in 1918
with the laying of the cornerstone of the Hebrew
University on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem. The
first board of governors included such renowned
figures as Martin Buber, Sigmund Freud, Judah
Magnes, Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann.
Chaim Weizmann, who went on to become
Israel’s first president, believed that the Hebrew
University should also serve as the bridge of understanding to be built between the Jews and the Arabs
living in Palestine and in the surrounding region.
With the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany, the Hebrew University became a prime refuge for victims
fleeing persecution and discrimination at universities in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.
In its early years, academic life at this “temple of
Science” (as the Zionist leader Menahem Ussishkin
Today, the seven faculties of the Hebrew University are comprised of 12 institutes that focus on
teaching and of some 100 institutes dedicated to
research. The Hebrew University is ranked among
the 100 best universities in the world and HU researchers are at the forefront of a wide range of
fields in international science. These fields include
biotechnologies, computer sciences, astrophysics,
cancer research, microbiology and solar energy. The
Hebrew University is home to a number of centers of
excellence. They cover such topics as German history,
neural computation, cognitive sciences, bioinformatics, nanotechnology and environmental sciences.
The university’s faculties of humanities and social
sciences focus on studying humanity’s various cultures, societies and religions. Jewish studies are a central element of academic pursuit at HU. It also has,
however, important centers of Islamic and Christian studies, and of the civilizations of the Middle and
Far East.
The Hebrew University currently has four campuses, three of which are located in Jerusalem and
one in Rehovot. There are more than 1,000 faculty
members. Approximately 24,000 students are enrolled at the HU. Their ranks are comprised of 12,000
undergraduates, 7,200 graduates, 2,800 doctoral
students and 950 students of the Rothberg School for
Overseas Students and of other programs.
The HU has always conducted both applied and
basic research. Nearly 30 % of all civilian scientific
research in Israel is performed at the Hebrew University. About 4,400 research projects are currently
underway at the university, and 1,500 new projects
are launched each year. 16 % of all the research
conducted at the university finds application in the
high-tech sector. The university’s research budget
amounted to $US106 million in 2006/07, approxima-
Israel’s institutions of higher education and their research facilities
48
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
location
Jerusalem
year of founding
1925
enrollment
some 23,500
number of employees
1,200 tenured academic faculty, 1,500 fully-employed
administrative and technical staff
faculties
7
humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, agriculture, medicine, dentistry, jurisprudence
Website
tely one third of the total amount spent on research
by Israeli universities that year.
The Hebrew University has more than fulfilled its
original vision of becoming a focus of academic excellence in the region. It is one of the major participants
in internationally funded research projects involving
neighboring Arab states and the Palestinians, most
significantly in the areas of conflict research, agriculture, health and the environmental sciences. Nine
of these projects currently receive funding from the
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German
Research Foundation). German scientists are also
involved in the projects. The Hebrew University
cultivates a densely woven network of collaborative
activities with Germany. It also has the largest number
of Minerva Centers in Israel.
During her second visit to Israel, which took
place in April 2007, Federal Chancellor Dr. Angela
Merkel received an honorary doctorate from the
Hebrew University.
Seven Nobel Prizes were conferred in the last
decade upon Hebrew University faculty members
and/or alumni. 10 ERC Advanced Grants and 18 ERC
Starting Grants were awarded to Hebrew University
faculty members in the previous 3 granting rounds.
This fact establishes the Hebrew University as the second best university in Europe (tied with Oxford) as
http://www.huji.ac.il
far as ERC starting grants are concerned. With over
four decades of experience in commercializing the
scientific discoveries emanating from the Hebrew
University, Yissum, its technology transfer company, ranks among the top 12 technology transfer
companies in the world in revenues.
The Hebrew University, founded in 1925 and
thus the first research university in Israel, acknowledges the contribution of Jewish scientists from Germany to the establishment and
development of academic excellence in Israel.
Based on these strong historical ties, Israel in
general and the Hebrew University in particular are now seeking to align our activities with
those of Germany, which is one of the world’s
leaders in science and research. We continuously strive to intensify and increase our already
strong and numerous working relationships
with Germany’s research community. These
make use of our scientific excellence and cover
a wide spectrum of academic fields, ranging
from the humanities to the natural sciences
and life sciences.
Prof. Isaiah T. Arkin, Vice President for Research
and Development, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Israel’s institutions of higher education and their research facilities
49
Technion
Technion in Haifa
The Technion, Israel‘s oldest university, was modeled
upon Germany‘s technical universities. In 1909, the
Hilfsverein Deutscher Juden, a Jewish welfare association in Germany, took the initiative of founding in
Berlin the “Jüdisches Institut für technische Erziehung in Palästina” (Jewish Institute for Technical
Education in Palestine). The institute’s objective was
to pave the way for the establishment of a technical
university in Palestine.
The cornerstone of the first building in Israel was
laid in 1912. The question of which language should
be used for instruction – Hebrew, German or English
– developed into a protracted dispute. Hebrew won
out in 1914, the year in which World War I broke out.
Due to the war, however, the Technion could not be
commissioned until 1924.
After overcoming some initial difficulties, the
Technion began developing in the 1930s. This process
was impelled by the influx of German immigrants,
many of them university teachers and researchers.
A number of them established fields of study at the
Technion.
Today, the Technion has 18 academic units. They
operate 40 research centers and institutes. These in
turn devote themselves to a wide variety of technical,
scientific and medical fields. The Technion’s some
550 faculty members teach some 13,000 students.
Having trained more than 80,000 engineers, scientists, doctors, and architects, the Technion can well
claim to have made a significant contribution to
Israel’s rise to being a high-tech nation. In the field
of engineering, the Technion continues to be the
country’s foremost training and research center. Its
research budget in this area amounts to more than
$US60 million per year from external sources, plus an
additional $US50 million more from donations. The
Technion was also the first university in Israel to have
a Nobel Prize conferred upon its researchers.
The Technion maintained close contacts with
manufacturers even before the State of Israel was
founded. These ties are thus more longstanding than
those of any other university in Israel. The Technion
also has a network of subsidiaries. These have played
an important role in the founding of many high-tech
companies. The Technion is particularly active in the
area of contract research. Its clients are companies
from all over the world, including Germany.
The university’s initial contacts with Germany were
established under the auspices of the German state
of Lower Saxony and of the Volkswagen Foundation.
The Technion and Lower Saxony’s Ministry of Science
and the Arts agreed in 1983 to launch a joint research
program to be primarily financed by funds earmar-
Israel’s institutions of higher education and their research facilities
50
Technion in Haifa
location
Haifa
year of founding
1912
enrollment
some 13,000 (12,665)
staff members
536 faculty, 316 clinicians (physicians teaching at the
School of Medicine), 3848 administrative staff
faculties
18
Engineering Departments, Exact Sciences, Faculty of
Architecture and School of Medicine
Website
ked by the Volkswagen Foundation for Lower Saxony.
Funding from this program has supported the more
than 106 joint projects that have already been carried
out by scientists from the Technion and from research
institutions in Lower Saxony.
Researchers from the Technion and their German
colleagues are represented in all German-Israeli
R&D funding programs and in the EU’s Framework
Research Programs.
Excellent working relationships are maintained
between the Technion and such German institutions
of higher education as the RWTH Aachen University,
the Technical University of Berlin, the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, the Karlsruhe Institute
of Technology, the Ruprecht Karls University of
Heidelberg, and the University of Stuttgart.
Such close ties also exist between the Technion
and such research institutes as those of the Max
Planck and Fraunhofer societies, the Research Center
Jülich, and the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
The Minerva Research Centers, which are financed by the Max Planck Society’s Minerva Foundation, support cooperation between German and
Israeli scientists in various fields of research.
http://www1.technion.ac.il
In a number of these centers, the Technion conducts research under its sole management; other
centers are run in cooperation with other Israeli
universities.
Technion scientists also work together with such
German companies as Bayer, Siemens, Bosch, Henkel,
SKT (Schunk Kohlenstofftechnik GmbH), Carl Zeiss,
STEAG and Vodafone.
The working relationship between the Technion and German science and technology
institutes is extremely important and should
be strengthened and extended. Germany is a
country possessing outstanding scientific and
technological capabilities and achievements,
and the Technion, as the leading science and
engineering school in Israel, aims to cooperate
with the best institutions in the world. This
scientific interaction also serves as a bridge
between the two nations.
Prof. Oded Shmueli, Vice President for R&D,
Technion Haifa
Israel’s institutions of higher education and their research facilities
51
Among TAU’s large number of international-level
activities is the annual conferring of the Dan David
Prize, one of the most important honors in the world.
TAU maintains close relationships with Jewish communities around the world. The university also offers
programs of study for teachers and students in the
USA, Canada and Europe. The University’s extensive
outreach to leading facilities of research and education manifests itself in the number of its cooperation
agreements – more than 150. A number of these
agreements are with such institutions of higher
education in Germany as the Ludwig-MaximiliansUniversity in Munich, the Johann Wolfgang Goethe
University in Frankfurt, the University of Konstanz
and the GFZ German Research Center for the Geosciences.
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University (TAU)
Located in the center of cultural, business and financial life in Israel, Tel Aviv University (TAU) is today the
largest institution of higher education and research in
the country. The University is comprised of 9 faculties,
95 departments, 27 areas of study and more than
130 research institutes. TAU came into being in 1956
through the merger of three small-sized institutions
of education. In 1963, it was set up as an autonomous
institution. A year later, it grouped its institutes on the
Ramat Aviv campus, which is located in northern Tel
Aviv.
TAU has an enrollment of 29,000. These students
are provided with a very wide spectrum of areas of
study by the faculties of engineering, mathematics
and natural sciences, biosciences, medicine, humanities, jurisprudence, social sciences, fine arts and
management. Especially supported is the introduction of innovative and interdisciplinary programs
in such cutting-edge sectors as the nanosciences,
biophysics, bioinformatics, stem cell research and
regenerative energy. Many of TAU’s 1,100 professors
are internationally-renowned scientists who have
come up with significant research findings in their
areas of expertise.
In addition to project funding from Germany’s
Federal Ministry of Education and Research’s programs, TAU has received over the past years various
kinds of other financial support from Germany. This
has stemmed from the Society of the Friends of the
university, foundations, private donors and other
sources. Founded in 1971, the Minerva Institute for
German History at TAU has been receiving funding
since 1980 – via the Foundation Fund of the Munichbased Minerva Foundation – from Germany’s Federal
Ministry of Education and Research. Other grants
from Germany support the faculties of jurisprudence
Tel Aviv University (TAU) uses grants and
scholarships to foster working relationships
between Germany and Israel in the areas of
research and education. TAU also participates
in a large number of German-Israeli programs,
with these including Minerva, GIF, DIP, BMBFMOST and BIO-DISC. TAU has a great store of
expertise in working with manufacturers operating in a large variety of areas. These include
communication technologies, bioinformatics
and electronics. The university employs its local and international contacts to the stepping
up of its working relationships with German
business and technology partners and with the
country‘s institutions of higher education.
Prof. Hagit Messer Yaron, Vice-President of
Research and Development, Tel Aviv University
Israel’s institutions of higher education and their research facilities
52
Tel Aviv University (TAU)
location
Tel Aviv
year of founding
1956
enrollment
some 29,000
staff members
1,000 academic staff (senior)
1,400 administrative staff
faculties
9
Engineering, Natural Sciences, Biosciences, Medicine,
Humanities, Jurisprudence, Social Sciences, Fine Arts,
Management
Website
and visual arts; foster the peaceful coexistence of
Jews and Arabs; fund scholarships and scientific work
in a large number of areas of study, ranging from
biotechnologies to peace research; promote the integration of immigrants; and support a large number
of other TAU facilities. Cultural sciences and relationships have been advanced by the founding of the
Marcel Reich-Ranicki Chair of German Literature at
TAU and through the visits by Christoph von Dohnanyi and Helmuth Rilling – two of Germany’s leading
conductors – to TAU’s Academy of Music.
http://www.tau.ac.il
Israel’s institutions of higher education and their research facilities
University of Haifa
University of Haifa
The University of Haifa was established in 1963 to
meet the special needs of the Haifa area and of the
north of Israel. Initially administered under the
auspices of the Hebrew University, the University
of Haifa gained full academic autonomy in 1973.
Today, it is home to more than 17,000 students.
Over 750 scholars and scientists make up the
academic staff of the university‘s six faculties:
Humanities; Social Sciences and Mathematics;
Education; Law; Social Welfare and Health Studies;
and Science and Science Education. There is also a
thriving Graduate School of Business.
Among the most prominent of the university’s
60 multifaceted research centers are the Institute
of Evolution, the Institute for the Study of Affective Neuroscience, the Max Wertheimer Center
for Cognitive Processes and Human Performance,
and the Research Institute for Alternatives in
Education. The IBM Haifa Science and Technology
Center, which is located on the university’s campus, is dedicated to the field of the user-friendly
information society (IST).
Israel, of course, is a small country, but it boasts
a vibrant academic community. International
ties are at the heart of all successful academic research. The resources made available
through the years by the German government
and by other funding agencies have facilitated
numerous state-of-the-art research projects,
have helped create and consolidate various
top-ranking research institutes and have encouraged many fruitful partnerships between
German and Israeli scientists as well as with
scholars from the Palestinian Authority and
from other Arab countries.
As Vice President and Dean of Research of the
University of Haifa, I firmly believe that science
and scientists should create not only scientific knowledge, but should also help promote
understanding and build bridges promoting
peace among the peoples of the Middle East.
German research ties also provide significant
support for this mission.
Prof. Majid Al-Haj, Vice President and Dean of
R&D, University of Haifa
53
Israel’s institutions of higher education and their research facilities
54
University Haifa
location
Haifa
year of founding
1963
enrollment
some 17,000
staff members
1350
faculties
6
Humanities, Social Sciences, Mathematics, Educational Sciences, Jurisprudence, Social Work, Health Care,
Natural Sciences and Science Education
schools
2
Oceanography
Website
Business
http://www.tau.ac.il
What sets the University of Haifa apart from its
fellow universities in Israel is the large numbers of
students from Israeli Palestinian and immigrant
families in its student body.
(DIG). In April 2008, the Bucerius Center established
the “Manfred Lahnstein Fellowships”, which are
awarded every year to European doctorate students
and which enable them to study at the Center.
The University of Haifa’s research and teaching
activities have been supported by German initiatives for a long time. In 1974, the Friedrich Ebert
Foundation in Bonn sponsored the creation of the
University’s Jewish-Arab Center and its Gustav
Heinemann Institute for Middle Eastern Studies,
both of which have been receiving funding from
the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia since 1991. The
latter also helped establish the Bertha von Suttner
Special Research Program for Conflict Resolution in
the Middle East.
In 2007, the German Academic Exchange Service
(DAAD), acting on behalf of the Federal Government, chose the University of Haifa to be the site for
one of the two new Centers for German and European Studies, whose mandate is “to provide the young
elite in Israel with knowledge about Germany”. In
concrete terms, the Center has three pillars of activity: teaching, research, and public outreach.
The ZEIT Foundation finances the Center for
Multiculturalism and Educational Research. The
Foundation founded in 2000 the Bucerius Institute
for Research of Contemporary German History
and Society. The central driving force behind the
ZEIT Foundation’s activities has been Prof. Manfred
Lahnstein, the former German Minister of Finance
and former president of the German-Israel Society
Israel’s institutions of higher education and their research facilities
weizmann Institute of Science in rehovot
(wIS)
The Weizmann Institute of Science is one of the
leading basic research institutions worldwide in
all areas of the natural and exact sciences. The
Institute’s 18 departments are organized into five
faculties: Mathematics and Computer Science,
Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry and Biology. There
is also a Science Teaching department, as well as the
Feinberg Graduate School, the Institute’s educational branch, which grants M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees. The Davidson Institute of Science Education
operates and coordinates the Institute’s educational
activities, including Perach, a mentoring program;
the Clore Garden of Science (an open-air museum of
sciences); and numerous after-school activities, and
student and teacher enrichment programs.
The presence of scientists from a variety of fields
on the Institute’s campus provides fertile grounds
for interdisciplinary research, giving rise to fascinating encounters between diverse scientific fields
Weizmann Institute
55
that rarely converge elsewhere. Some 1,200 research
projects, each at the forefront of international
science, are underway at the Institute at any given
time.
The Weizmann Institute emerged from the
small-sized Daniel Sieff Research Institute, which
was founded in 1934 by the UK’s Israel and Rebecca Sieff in memory of their son. The driving force
behind its establishment was the Institute’s first President, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, a noted chemist who
headed the Zionist movement for many years and
who went on to become the first President of Israel.
The Institute was renamed the Weizmann Institute
of Science in honor of Dr. Weizmann’s 75th birthday
in 1949, with the agreement of the Sieff family.
In subsequent years, the Institute was substantially expanded. Its present-day campus contains
more than 100 buildings and more than 300 acres
(1.2 km). The Institute employs approximately
2,500 people, including 250 principal investigators
heading their own research groups; 850 engineers,
Israel’s institutions of higher education and their research facilities
56
weizmann Institute of Science in
rehovot (wIS)
location
Rehovot
year of founding
1934
enrollment
1,100
staff members
250 research group heads (PIs), 900 scientific staff, 400
administration support staff.
faculties
5
Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Bio-chemistry and
Biology
Website
technicians, and scientists with Ph.D. degrees; some
1,000 M.Sc. and Ph.D. students; and some 400 administrative staff. The Institute’s annual budget is approximately $US 250 million, a little over one third
of which is provided by the Israeli government. The
rest comes from research grants secured by Institute
scientists as well as from endowed funds, donations
and royalties.
The Weizmann Institute has the longest standing contacts with German researchers of all Israeli
research centers. The Weizmann Institute and
German scientists carry out more than 100 joint
projects every year, working on a bilateral basis or in
EU initiatives. The Institute maintains particularly
close ties with the Max Planck Society. These led
to the establishment of the first contacts between
German and Israeli scientists in 1959. The BMBF has
provided funding for the Weizmann Institute since
1964 via Minerva Stiftung GmbH, a subsidiary of the
Max Planck Society.
http://www.weizmann.ac.il
The Weizmann Institute of Science maintains
close ties with many German institutions of
higher learning and research, and in particular
with the Max Planck Society, which established
the first contacts between German and Israeli
scientists in 1959. Today, Weizmann scientists
are engaged in over 100 joint research projects
with German colleagues. These projects are in
all areas of the exact and natural sciences, and
are funded by the Minerva Foundation, DIP, GIF
and EU research programs. As we celebrated
the German-Israel Year of Science and Technology and mark more than 50 years of fruitful
scientific cooperation, we look forward to
consolidating and strengthening our mutual
scientific ties.
Prof. Haim Garty, Vice President
German-Israeli cooperation: case studies
57
German-Israeli cooperation: case studies
�
The jointly compiled findings of the GermanIsraeli research eloquently document the
potential contained in this working relationship. These brief case studies of the two
countries’ projects are primarily in the fields
of research into security, medicine, oceanography and environmental sciences, and as
well as into physics, water management and
bioethics.
research into civil security
The number of sources and objects of threats to our
civil security keep on rising, as do their potential magnitude. Increasing even faster are, accordingly, our
need to prevent, detect and defuse these threats. One
driver of solutions in the area of security research is
the close working relationship between Israel and
Germany. The breadth and diversity of this relationship are detailed by the projects pursued by these
partners.
Recent incidents have repeatedly brought to
the public’s attention the fact that the detection
of hazardous substances in cargo is of ever increasing concern. However, the huge amount of such
shipments makes checking every nook and cranny
prohibitively expensive in terms of time and money.
To meet this challenge, the ACCIS project (“Automatic Cargo Container Inspection System”) is devoting
itself to coming up with new and innovative solutions for cargo inspection. Being conducted from
July 2010 to June 2013, the project is being pursued
by a research team comprised of five German and
three Israeli partners. The goal is the setting up of a
demonstrator capable of detecting explosives and
radioactive materials in such small and mediumsized freight receptacles as airfreight containers.
The method is based on an innovative screening
procedure combining high-resolution neutron resonance imaging and gamma radiography. Able to
identify a large range of dangerous materials, this
technique facilitates the more rapid, reliable and
partially automated detection of contraband.
After a major earthquake, tidal wave, hurricane or another form of natural disaster strikes
– something that is seemingly happening more
and more often these days and with catastrophic
ramifications upon property and human life – the
most immediate and urgent jobs are finding and
rescuing the persons buried under the resultant
rubble. Often handicapping this race with the clock
is a crippling lack of information: on whom you
are looking for, on where they are, who has already
been found and requires rescuing, and how best
to get to them. Alleviating this lack is the objective
of I-LOV – “Intelligent safeguarding localization
system for the rescuing of people trapped or buried
under rubble”. This project is being conducted from
June 2008 to November 2011 by 15 German and three
Israeli partners. I-LOV’s concept is to create an innovative localization system improving the finding of
the buried and the injured.
The most highly leveraged threats to the health
of large segments of the population ensue from the
combination of infections and modern means of
transport. It only takes a single, infected air passenger or terrorist-borne vial of viruses to create a
bio-emergency endangering an entire city, nation or even continent. The key to defeating such
epidemics is preparedness on the part of hospitals,
communities and countries. They have to be ready
to take the actions isolating and effectively treating
The transport of patients with highly infectious diseases demands special
knowledge.
58
the highly-infectious patients and containing the
incipient sickness. Auditing and improving these
states of readiness is the goal of the BEPE – Internetbased tool for the evaluation of hospitals’ level of
preparedness for biological emergencies project
being undertaken from April 2010 to March 2013 by
a consortium comprised of four German and two
Israeli partners. The project will lead to the creation of a comprehensive-range and highly-reliable
Internet-based tool capable of conducting such audits of hospitals and of their personnel’s readiness to
deal with a bio-emergency, including ones caused
by terrorists, and of thus revealing areas of improvement. The project teams up Germany’s experience
in combating such explosively-infectious diseases as
SARS and Lassa fever and Israel’s expertise in managing large crowds of people.
Mobility of people and goods is one of the key
drivers of globalization. Bridges and tunnels are important components of the transport infrastructure
enabling this mobility. This importance and their
high concentrations of traffic make these structures
especially prone to being the venues of disturbances
of such. Due to the structures’ confined quarters,
accidents and actions undertaken for criminal and
terrorism purposes can have serious consequences
for the traffic and for bridges and tunnels. Maintaining mobility requires therefore taking preventive
measures enhancing the security and protection
of tunnels. A project headed by Germany’s Federal
Highways Agency (BASt) is developing a security
management system comprised of innovative
sensors, technical equipment already installed in
tunnels and a newly-created software capable of the
real-time ascertainment of conditions in a tunnel. These findings are then visually reported in a
control center. This system is to provide the tunnel’s
operators with a greater speed and efficacy of response to disturbances. Creating it is the objective of
RETISS – Real-time Security Management System for
Infrastructure on German and Israeli roads, which
is being staged from March 2010 – February 2013 by
four German and three Israeli partners.
Germany’s potable water is renowned for its
purity. This purity is maintained through continuous and repeated testing. Today’s testing systems are
capable of reporting within short periods of time
contamination by a wide variety of items, with these
including fertilizers washing down with deluges
of rainfall. An innovative system is to also have the
German-Israeli cooperation: case studies
power to rapidly detect and warn operators of the
presence of such hazardous substances as DDT
and other chlorinated hydrocarbons. Being staged
from May 2010 to April 2013 by six German and one
Israeli partner, IRLSENS – Infrared laser-based fiber
optic sensor system for drinking water monitoring
promises to come up with such a system.
Today’s generation of sensors is much smaller
than its predecessors. Not only that, quite a number
of these advanced sensors have unprecedented
capabilities of detection (of hazardous materials
and of changes in temperature and composition).
The ChipSenSiTek fiber optic microsensors for the
detection of explosive materials under real-time
conditions project, which was carried out from
2007 – 2009 by six German and two Israeli research
partners, went one step farther. It applied a special
coating to the sensors. This gave them the capacity
to detect explosives on a real-time basis and with
a high degree of discrimination. These sensors are
destined to be put to work in secure and isolated facilities (such as an airlock) in which persons undergo security controls.
A personnel airlock in which the new sensors could be integrated
German-Israeli cooperation: case studies
59
Early recognition of electromagnetic disturbances increases the security of the travelers.
Electromagnetic disturbances pose a great threat
to airports and other transport infrastructure, as
the disturbances can cause the malfunctioning
of their entire IT and communication systems, as
these disturbances can give rise in the worst case to
catastrophic accidents, and as the disturbances can
be easily generated. Add in the fact that the sources
of these disturbances are hard to localize and trace,
and you can understand why this threat is now
being systematically dealt with. Being carried out
from April 2010 – March 2013 by six German and two
Israeli research partners, EMSIN Electromagnetic
protection of transport infrastructures is designed
to create strategies enabling operators to improve
their protective shield against incidents of such
electromagnetic disturbances. Once formulated,
the concept is to be developed for marketing and to
be produced by a manufacturer participating in the
project.
Being undertaken from May 2010 – July 2012 by
seven German and three Israeli research partners,
LiveDetect3D Detection of hidden threats through
real-time 3D imaging is developing a system using
a terahertz imaging system and an optic 3D camera
to conduct the safe-distance scanning of persons.
This will reveal any security threat emanating from
hidden and dangerous objects, and will do such
without intruding upon the scannees’ privacy by
not producing detailed depictions of their bodies.
LiveDetect could thus well form the basis of forthcoming access control systems.
Do the German and Israeli societies have the resiliency requisite to withstand and overcome crises
and their immediate and long-term effects? This
question was addressed by the ESR System trust and
crisis management: an interactive expert exchange
system for strengthening societal resilience project,
which was carried out from March 2010 – February 2011, and which first investigated the concepts
informing resiliency, and which then came up with
the tools to investigate and evaluate it in the two
societies.
Medical research
Israel and Germany have long been leading centers
of the neurosciences. As such, they have been at the
forefront of solving one of this field’s most important and intriguing challenges: finding a way to provide the paralyzed, amputees, Parkinson patients
60
and other handicapped persons with control over
their limbs and prostheses, and, by doing so, to free
them to lead more mobile and self-reliant lives. Beneficiaries of this liberation will not only be the patients
themselves but society in general, which will gain
personnel and reduce a source of expenditure.
One of the most promising approaches was
yielded by METACOMP – Models and Experiments
towards Adaptive Control of Motor Prostheses. Now
concluded, this DIP project cooperation was undertaken by Dr. Eilon Vaadia of the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem and by Dr. Ad Aertsen of the University
of Freiburg.
The approach’s outcome could well be ‘intelligent’ prostheses – in that they are robustly and
directly linked via a stably-functioning interface
to the brain, and in that they are thus capable of
responding to changes in conditions or to patient’s
wishes. The way to such prostheses is based upon a
formulation of models and mechanisms capable of
the real-time tracking of neuronal activities in the
motor areas of the cortex. After having been formulated, these models are to be used to investigate
how the movement of the arm is depicted on and
learned at the neuronal level. Once this has been
accomplished, the finalized models are to form the
core of an adaptive mechanism capable of transforming neuronal activity into the movements desired
by the patient.
German-Israeli cooperation: case studies
Everything in life has two sides. Much to our
surprise, it turns out that our immune system is
not an exception to this rule. Its positive side is, of
course, well known and appreciated. The immune
system is our first and best line of defense against
illness. Over the last decade and a half, biomedical
researchers have discovered the system’s other side.
Its fighting off infections and inflammations can
facilitate the ensuing and growth of tumors. This
discovery has, in turn, caused the need to come up
with another one: to understand the underlying
mechanisms triggering this detrimental side effect
of the system’s actions.
Using a preclinical mouse model of hepatitis and
of hepatic cancer, research groups at the University of Tel Aviv (headed by Professor Eli Pikarski and
Yinon Ben-Neriah) and at the Heidelberg-based
DKFZ German Cancer Research Center (under the
leadership of Dr. Peter Angel and Dr. Jochen Hess) initiated the Molecular mechanisms of inflammation
induced liver cancer joint project. The two groups
identified key molecules in cells of the immune
system and tumor cells that encode cell membrane
proteins or that represent constituents of intracellular signaling cascades to the nucleus driving carcinogenesis in the setting of chronic inflammation.
These findings create novel therapeutic strategies
for liver and other forms of infection-dependent
cancer.
A look at the autosampler of a nanoUPLC mass spectrometer system, with which an enzyme that participates in the repairing of DNA is analyzed. A sample of
about 5 µl is first sucked in by the autosampler, which then injects it into the system of analysis.
German-Israeli cooperation: case studies
Also featuring the participation of DKFZ researchers and undertaken under the leadership of the
Center and of Israel’s Ministry of Science and Technology was the Identification and functional analysis of protein phosphorylation and dephosphorylation in the ATM-mediated DNA damage response.
ATM Kinase is one of the most important of the very
many enzymes participating in the mission-critical
processes in cells. ATM Kinase is the “repair manager” of DNA. Should DNA’s double-strand chains of
molecules be ruptured by such outside agents as
chemicals or radiation, ATM Kinase steps in. It activates and interacts with a large number of the proteins responsible for repairing the rupture and thus
avoiding lasting damage to genetic materials. ATM
Kinase was identified some 15 years ago by Dr. Yosef
Shiloh, a professor at the University of Tel Aviv. In
2005–2008, Dr. Shiloh and Dr. Wolf-Dieter Lehmann
of the DKFZ determined how these “repair” proteins are phosphorylated and thus regulated by ATM
Kinase. The researchers managed to plot the steps
marking the alteration of the individual proteins by
this process.
oceanography
The melting and shrinking of mountain glaciers,
the icecaps and Greenland – the effects of the greenhouse gases-caused warming of the globe are to be
seen everywhere. Less apparent but equally momentous is how the planet’s largest expanses – its
61
oceans – and the life populating them are responding to the greater heat and precipitation of such
gases into them. This is even though such trends are
altering the ocean surface’s pH at a rate three times
greater than that of the transition from glacial to
interglacial periods – itself a period of revolutionary
change.
Determining and quantifying such effects were
the objectives of Effects of Global Warming and
Higher CO2 Levels on Aquatic Nitrogen Fixation.
This project was sponsored by BMBF and MOST and
conducted during 2006–2009 by project leader Dr.
Julie LaRoche of the Leibniz Institute for Marine
Studies at the Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel
and by Israeli partner Dr. Ilana Berman-Frank of Bar
Ilan University of Ramat Gan. Playing instrumental
parts in the research were the two pre-docs: Stefanie
Sudhaus (in Kiel) and Orly Levitan (in Ramat Gan).
Venues were the waters of the Gulf of Aqaba
and off the Cap Verde islands, at which samples of
diazotrophic organisms were collected. They were
then subjected under the controlled conditions of
a laboratory in Israel to increased concentrations
of carbon dioxide and temperature. Monitored was
also how the organisms responded to the resultant
changes in the sample water’s pH. In addition to
conducting photosynthesis, these organisms also
have the trait of being able to fix nitrogen or N2 gas.
They are thus a major biological source of this essential nutrient in the remote ocean gyres.
environmental research
Non-scientists associate algae with a brown tinge to
the water and slime clinging to damp rocks. Many
of these persons are not aware of an important fact.
These micro-organisms product huge amounts
of oxygen – and fix – via organic compounds – an
equally large amount of carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere.
A German-Israeli team examining water taken from the Gulf of Aqaba.
The team’s objective is to determine how bacteria respond to higher
water temperatures and greater concentrations of carbon dioxide.
An especially large influence upon the planet’s
carbon dioxide budget is exerted by diatoms. Coming in 100,000-odd species, the diatoms generate
more than one fifth of the oxygen and biomass produced by the plant world. Accordingly and correspondingly, these tiny algae are, collectively, one of
the greatest “fixers” (consumers of carbon dioxide)
from the atmosphere.
German-Israeli cooperation: case studies
62
Despite the diatoms’ overriding importance, relatively little is known about their molecular biology and biochemistry. To remedy this, Professor Peter
Kroth of the University of Konstanz and Professor
Aaron Kaplan of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
have joined to conduct, starting in 2010, Living well
with a scrambled metabolism: CO2 fixation and
carbohydrate pathways in diatoms. This project is
being sponsored by GIF. The biologists pursuing
it are investigating the special metabolic paths
enabling the algae’s cells to achieve a higher – than
land-based plants – rate of efficiency of amassing
biomass.
Food safety
Assuring the purity of their food is one of consumers’ most pressing concerns. This is entirely understandable. Safe food is one of the prerequisites
for a healthy life. Over the past few decades, meat
has been a prime focus of this concern. Undertaken
from 2006–2009 by a BIO-DISC consortium featuring Agrobiogen (Germany) and Bactochem (Israel)
and universities from the two countries (including
the Humboldt University) and Israel’s Agricultural Research Organization (Volcani Center of Bet
Dagan), Population wide system for traceability
and genetic characterization in cattle to enhance
animal health and food addressed this concern. This
bilateral working relationship produced a powerful
instrument of control and diagnostics. It will impart
the greatest possible transparency to the meat
production process by enabling inspectors and
veterinarians to ascertain and track the origins and
routes taken along the processing chain of each cow
and of every product made from it. While doing so,
it will put an end to livestock rustling still endemic
in Israel and many other parts of the world.
This identification uses genetic material taken
from tissue extracted during the legally-required
ear-tagging of cows. This material is then subjected
to a high throughput screening procedure employing selected genetic markers. In addition to
genotyping, this material yields important information on the presence of viruses and other causes of
diseases. This process also enables the demonstration – and at an early stage – of an animal’s actually
being a disease-carrier – even though it displays no
symptoms of such. Thanks to this, such bearers can
be removed from herds before infecting them.
Physics
�
In 1959, theoretical physicist Richard Feynman gave
his landmark speech “There’s plenty of room at the
bottom” at the California Institute of Technology.
In it, his audience was asked to consider a vision: of
technologies capable of miniaturizing mechanical
and electrical devices to scales of a few billionths of
a meter in length. Today, such ‘nanotechnologies’
are well-established, and they are putting many
aspects of Feynman’s visions into practice. The
ensuing nanostructures are in widespread use – as
components of data storage, signal processing and
ultra-sensitive measuring devices.
A laser beam is used to address the atoms forming a lattice of light.
Requisite to set forth the rise of the nanotechnologies, and to thus enable further innovations in integrated circuit technology, sensor technology and
other fields, is a more detailed understanding of the
principles governing the performance of electronic
and mechanical nanostructures.
That is the purpose of Mesoscopic Electromechanical Effects in Suspended Nanostructures. Being
conducted from January 2009 – December 2011 by a
team from Munich’s Ludwig-Maximilians University
and from Tel Aviv University and from Haifa’s Technion, this GIF project is a collaboration of theoretical
and experimental physicists. It investigates the interplay of mechanical vibrations, electron transport
and light-induced effects in freely suspended nanostructures. An understanding of these effects on the
German-Israeli cooperation: case studies
mesoscopic scale – describing the regime between
atomic dimensions and the macroscopic world – has
the potential to drive innovations and to write a new
chapter in the nanotechnologies’ story of success.
Now completing its second decade as a fullfledged discipline, the quantum physics of ultracold
atoms has become one of science’s most productive fields. Being advanced in such centers as the
Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics (MPQ) in
Garching (Munich’s northern high-tech suburb), the
Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, and the
Weizmann Institute of Science (WSI) in Rehovot is
our comprehension of how matter and energy act
and interact in the quantum world.
One particularly exciting field is quantum information, which strives to harness the principles of
quantum mechanics to the creation, processing, storing and transmission of information. One product
of this research will someday be – among others –
ICT (information and communication technology)
devices with speeds, sophistication, securities and
capacities exponentially greater than today’s ones.
A leader in this field is Dr. Immanuel Bloch, who
is both a director at MPQ and a professor at Munich’s
Ludwig Maximilians University. Bloch and his colleagues at LMU and the WSI are currently carrying
out the “Quantum phase ultracold atoms in optical
lattices” project.
63
The project’s goal is to meet one of quantum
physic’s major and two-part challenges: understanding the workings of quantum many body systems
and then engineering and exploiting such quantum
systems for quantum information purposes or quantum simulations.
The focuses of the research are on realizing and
controlling such systems using ultra-cold atomic or
molecular quantum gases. Starting with ultracold
gases of degenerate quantum matter of bosons or
fermions held in optical and magnetic traps, the
researchers impose crystals of light on top of the
atoms in order to trap them in controlled periodic
potentials. Such arrays can serve as versatile model
systems for condensed matter physics, or as useful
quantum information processors and effective
setups for precision atomic and molecular physics
measurements.
water management
Israel has both a largely semi-arid climate and a
strongly growing population and business community – each with an avid thirst for water. A central
source of this resource is the Jordan River and its
tributaries. Their traversing national borders makes
the requisite management of their water a highly
politicized affair. The surface level of the Dead Sea –
the deepest point of the catchment area – is falling
at a rate of up to one meter a year. This accords the
Wadi Mujib, Jordan. Immediately prior to their flowing into the Dead Sea, the flows making their ways through the wadis are captured for use as potable
water.
64
German-Israeli cooperation: case studies
highest priority to achieving the highest possible efficiency – and thus sustainable – use of this valuable
resource.
The first step was to carry out a detailed survey
of the complexly configured geology of the area’s
underground. The survey then was used in the
creating of 3D models of several side valleys of the
Jordan basin. A case study of such is provided by
Hydrogeological investigations of the sustainable
utilization of potable water in the Mar Sab/Feshka
area of the Dead Sea. This project was headed by
Professor Heinz Hoetzl of the Karlsruhe Institute for
Technology (KIT), by Professor Akiva Flexer of the
University of Tel Aviv and by Dr. Joseph Guttmann of
Israel’s state MEKOROT water supply authority. The
project led to the successful drilling of potable water
wells, and served as the core of the SMART Project
on the integrated management of water resources
in the Lower Jordan Valley. Being pursued from
2006–2013, this substantially larger-multilateral
project is being coordinated by KIT and features the
participation by 21 partner institutions. These are located in Israel, Palestine and Jordan. The project has
thus set up a transnational dialogue. The project’s
objective is to encompass rain, potable and brackish
groundwater and sewage in an integrated management concept. Its highlights are the building
of decentralized sewage treatment and small-scale
desalination facilities, the formulation of models of
groundwater, and the establishment of groundwater conservation areas.
Bioethics
How do non-medical personnel in Germany and Israel perceive, deal with and discuss two of the most
difficult decisions facing medicine? That query
forms the gist of the GIF project on Cross-Cultural
Ethics of Health and Responsibility: expert and
lay perspectives regarding bioethical dilemmas in
Germany and Israel. Its term is from January 2010
– December 2012, and it is being conducted by Dr.
Silke Schicktanz of the University Medical Center
Göttingen and by Dr. Aviad Raz of the Ben Gurion
University of the Negev.
The decisions are whether or not to undergo as
an adult a genetic test determining if you are the
carrier of a gene that increases your risk of some
day developing a grave disease, and how to deal
with the question of withholding or withdrawing
Does genetic testing make sense? A German-Israeli team of researchers
is investigating the general public‘s answer to this and other questions of
medical ethics.
treatment in end-of-life situations. These decisions are embedded in perceptions of responsibility
(to oneself, to family members and to society as a
whole), and in understandings of the concepts of
health, illness and quality of life.
To determine the contexts of and possible differences between the decision-making processes in
Israel and in Germany, the researchers have created
an innovative approach comprised of an analysis of
guidelines and of bioethical expert discourses and
of empirical sociological research. This allows for a
comparative analysis of moral argumentation and
of cultural factors underlying it.
This project is expected to yield a detailed and
vivid portrayal of the differences and common
ground – shared and transcending principles – existing between Israeli and German society.
Impetus for the future
65
Impetus for the future
�
New fields for the German-Israeli cooperation
Characteristic of this cooperation are its
diversity and vitality. These traits mean that
the fields in which Germany and Israel work
together have not been established for all
time. rather, the range of fields receiving
support undergoes an ongoing transformation. The objective of this transformation is
to keep this bilateral working relationship
at the highest level of excellence and at the
cutting edge of technological change.
research into civil security
Held in 2008, the German-Israeli Year of Science and
Technology identified civil security as a new field of
research. In 2011, only three years after having been
initiated, the second call for proposals was published.
Its topics are the “protection of mission-critical
infrastructure”, “protection against crises and crisis
management” and “securing of chains of goods”.
Staged as early as 2009, the first joint call for proposals resulted in the selection of eight German-Israeli
research projects for funding.
Humanities
Decisive impetus stemming from the German-Israeli Year of Science and Technology in 2008 took the
form of establishing a bilateral working relationship
in the humanities and in the social sciences, and
the relationship’s expansion through the pursuing
of joint research projects. In December 2009, the
Foundation Martin Buber Society of Fellows in the
Humanities was founded. It enables five Germans
and five Israelis to join in researching at the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem. In October 2011, other recipients of scholarships joined the Fellows’ ranks.
Fields of industrial research
Added in 2000 to the working relations existing
between institutions of higher education and
research facilities were those whose focus is on
conducting research producing applications of use
by the manufacturers in these dedicated consortia.
The successes achieved by the BioDisc program and
Since 2010, the first ten Fellows of the Martin Buber Society have been
conducting their research at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The
photograph shows the Society’s director, Prof. David Shulman, and the
Fellows undertaking a tour of Jerusalem’s historic center.
the second call for proposals (mentioned above) in
the field of research into civil security details the potential of this cooperation. The pursuit of this form
of working relationship led to the concluding of a
letter of intent by BMBF and by MOITAL. Three new
fields – the life sciences, information and communication technologies and material sciences – were
identified and agreed upon.
Thrusts ensuing from instruments fostering
the further development of the cooperation
The ministries avail themselves of a range of instruments when identifying new fields and establishing
how they are to be implemented.
The job of these instruments is to parlay the
thrusts of current developments into topics utilizable for the German-Israeli cooperation. Such a development is the alteration in the worldwide security
situation. This has enhanced the focus on the area
of civil security. The ever-faster technological and
societal transformations sweeping our world have
mandated the strengthening of the humanities,
which play the role of being the guardian of our
cultural heritage.
66
German-Israeli Forum on research
Cooperation
The first German-Israeli Forum on Research Cooperation took place in June 2011. Its objective was to strengthen and expand the German-Israeli cooperation in
the fields of science and technology. To accomplish
this, the forum was to showcase the successes achieved by the cooperation, and, by doing such, to make
its potential apparent. The forum was also to use its
discussions and expert sessions to identify new fields
of research cooperation. Taking place at the same
time, the Umbrella Symposium was to detail the long
history of the German-Israeli research cooperation.
Comprised of scientists from RWTH Aachen, from
the Jülich Research Center and from the Technion in
Haifa, this working relationship turned 25 in 2011.
The expert sessions held at the research forum
focused on:
Impetus for the future
Intergovernmental consultations
A channel for the reciprocal exchange between
Germany and Israel on the intergovernmental
level is offered by the German-Israeli Intergovernmental Consultations, which have been taking
place since 2008. In the course of such a consultation, which was staged in 2010, Prof. Annette
Schavan, Germany‘s Federal Minister of Education
and Research, and Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz, her
Israeli colleague, agreed to extend the cooperation
to comprise research projects in and with Africa.
In the same year Prof. Annette Schavan and Israel’s
Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor agreed to
pursue the cooperation in the area of industrial research by encompassing new fields of research, by
extending the working relationship in vocational
education, and by working under the auspices of
EUREKA, which is Europe’s association for industrial research.
•� the computational neurosciences
•� marine research
•� sustainable water technology
•� software development for supercomputers
A year later, on January 31, 2011, Prof. Annette
Schavan and Mr. Gideon Sa’ar, Israel’s Minister of
Education, signed a joint declaration announcing
their assumption of the patronage of a conference
of the two countries on the sciences. This will be
held in 2012.
•� the development of Regional Research Centers in
and with Sub-Saharan Africa
Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel of Germany conferring with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the working meeting of the German-Israeli Consultations held in the latter’s offices in January 2011.
Impetus for the future
67
Committees of coordination
A joint committee handles the coordination of the
inter-ministerial working relationship in the area of
research. The committee’s members are representatives of the ministries and national bodies involved.
Venue for its annual meeting alternates between
Germany and Israel. The work on the scientific
level of these working relationships is facilitated by
steering and advisory committees. These issue recommendations as to which projects are to receive
support. The committees also appraise results. The
steering committees strengthen and coordinate bilateral ties being staged upon such intra-European
platforms as those in which both countries participate (EUREKA, Eurostars, FP7).
Dr. Johannes Hamann
In their own words: scientists on Israel, Germany and europe
be researching the same subject. Their approach,
however, used a totally different procedure.
dr. Johannes Hamann, Psychiatric Clinic, Center
for disease Management, TU Munich, holder of a
GIF Young Scientist scholarship (2009)
Getting to know Dr. Roe and Dr. Karnieli-Miller
of the University of Haifa was a true stroke of luck.
Their specialization on a qualitative method proved
the ideal complement to my quantitative one. This
perfect fit led us to resolve to jointly place an application for a new GIF project. This had been jointly
formulated in Israel and was in the process of being
appraised. My impressions from my first trip to Tel
Aviv were that it is an impressive, highly positive
place – and an incredibly beautiful one to boot. My
Israeli colleagues were exceptionally warmhearted.
They were creative, open and uncomplicated when
it came to pursuing our project. There is nothing
more wonderful for a scientist than working hard
and closely with soul mates on a research project.
Our concept is to meld the quantitative and qualitative approach to the researching of patient
participation in treatment, and to conduct studies employing this combined approach in both
countries. This will enable us to take into account
intercultural particularities. The desired outcome is
to bring about an alteration of the balance of power
between patients and their physicians.
How essentially do patients want to participate in
the decisions involving them, and how can they get
themselves involved in such situations?
This question has been occupying my attention
since my early days as an assistant doctor in the
Psychiatric Clinic of the TU Munich. The initial
scientific investments on this topic retained the approach of providing patients with a good briefing
on the medical evidence available on the methods
of treating their ailments. It, however, quickly became apparent that the dissemination of information does not suffice to get the patients proactively
participating in such decisions. To research an
approach focusing more strongly upon behavior
capable of bringing about this activation, I applied
in 2007 for a GIF scholarship. The organization’s
call for proposals perfectly fit my needs, in that GIF
didn’t establish any requirements as to the contents of projects eligible for support. This gave me
the opportunity to secure funding for my rather
unconventional project. Included in the project
was a trip to Israel. I went there once my project
had been completed in order to find partners for
forthcoming projects. Much to my surprise, my
search caused me to stumble across a working
group at the University of Haifa that turned out to
dr. eckart Schrank, Institute for Applied Geosciences, TU Berlin, and recipient of a GIF grant
(2007 – 2010)
The proposal to jointly undertake a research project
on the evolution of flowering plants came from my
colleague Prof. Valentin Krassilov, a paleobotanist at
Impetus for the future
68
“Israel has become part of Europe”
Prof. Moshe Zimmermann is one of Israel’s
leading historians, and is a renowned expert
on German, Israeli and Jewish history and
their intertwining. His expertise has made
him a sought-after commentator on current
events in Europe and the Middle East. Among
the many major prizes conferred upon him
have been the Humboldt Prize, the Jacob and
Wilhelm Grimm Prize of the German Academic
Exchange Service, the Dr. Leopold-Lucas-Prize
of the University of Tübingen, and the Lessing
Prize for Critique.
Professor Zimmerman, over the past five
decades, Germany and Israel have forged
a myriad of ties to each other in the areas
of research, business, the arts, scholarship,
and sports and tourism. Do the breadth,
depth and number of these ties mean that
the era of rapprochement is largely over in
the German-Israeli relationship, and that
the two countries have embarked upon
one of normalcy?
Zimmermann: The persons in the street
in Israel seem to think so. The Koebner
Center takes part in a yearly public opinion
poll. Their findings over the last few years
have been that some 75% – 80% of the Israelis
believe that there is now “another Germany”
and that Israeli-German relations are normal!
There is only one group – religious Jews – that
is relatively reserved when it comes to Germany. Israelis have learned to live with a kind
of schizophrenia about Germany. Presentday Germany is seen as being a very positive
place; the Germany of the past – the source of
the worst trauma imaginable.
the University of Haifa. I immediately agreed to his
idea, as the project was the ideal complement to my
previous studies on this topic. I had gotten to know
Professor Krassilov in the mid-1980s. In those days
he was still living in the then Soviet Union. In the
following years, we kept on running into each other
at congresses, at which we would update each other
Prof. Moshe Zimmermann, since 1986 founding director of the Minerva Richard Koebner
Center for German History at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem.
Looking at the number and extent of research relationships maintained between Israel and Germany and with the rest of Europe
reinforces the impression that in very many
ways – except of course physically - Israel has
become part of the continent. Do you share
that impression?
Zimmermann: I do and in view of the history
of the founding of Israel, it is anything but surprising. The impetus for this founding came from
European Jews, who wanted to set up a bridgehead for the continent in the Middle East. And the
ensuing European orientation and affinities have
been maintained to this day, the Orientalization
of Israeli life notwithstanding. The path of hightech development taken by Israel has of course
facilitated this trend.
about our research. A large-scale and international research project undertaken by the TU Berlin took me to
Egypt and northern Sudan. This trip to northeastern
Africa brought me in immediate proximity to Israel,
where Valentin Krassilov had gotten a position at the
University of Haifa. Funding from GIF made it possible
for me to start also researching in Israel in 2007.
Impetus for the future
69
dr. Cornelia Aust, Fellow (2010 – ) of the Foundation Martin Buber Society of Fellows, Hebrew
University of Jerusalem
Dr. Eckart Schrank
Viewed from the paleogeographic point of view,
today’s Israel is in the northern part of the former
Gondwana continent. That makes it highly interesting to us paleobotanists, because this is area
is thought to have been one of the cradles of the
first flowering plants. There are nowadays several
hundred thousand species of them, making them
the present’s most numerous forms of plants. These
ancient-most remnants turn up as early as in the
Lower Cretaceous. The questions of which ecological conditions prevailed in those days, and how this
group of plants arose and flourished so very successfully in them are two of the most interesting unanswered ones of paleobotany. The working relationship
with my Israeli colleagues was especially fruitful.
This was because the parameters of the GIF project
permitted us to work on the same sections, and, at
the same time, to research precisely in our respective
and complementary areas of specialty. Professor
Krassilov predominantly investigates such macrofossils as leaves, fruits and woods. These are to be
seen with the naked eye. I on the other hand devote
myself to pollen and spores identifiable using only a
microscope. Our research took us from Haifa into the
field – primarily to Makhtesh Ramon und Makhtesh
Qatan in the Negev. These are home to interesting geological sections. Joined by our colleagues and staff
members, we spent several weeks during 2007–2009
gathering plant macrofossils and a large number of
sediment samples. These were investigated for the
presence of fossil pollen and spores. The initial results
stemming from our work have already been presented at conferences and published in an international
magazine. The material that we secured is so rich in
fossils that its full-scale evaluation is going to take
quite a bit of time.
After having studied in Leipzig, Jerusalem, Berlin
and Warsaw, I received my Ph.D. in history from the
University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Concluded in May 2010, my dissertation was on “Commercial Cosmopolitanism. Networks of Jewish Merchants between Warsaw and Amsterdam, 1750–1820”.
In 2008–2009, I was a fellow at the Katz Center for
Advanced Judaic Studies in Philadelphia. Being a
historian of Jewish history, Israel and Jerusalem in
particular provide of course a great environment to
do research and make progress on my work. For that
reason, I applied for the Martin Buber Fellowship in
the spring of 2010 while finishing my dissertation.
My fellowship started in September 2010. Being a
fellow at the Martin Buber Society has proven a great
opportunity to set forth my research work and to
start upon new projects. The layout of the Society not
only gave me the opportunity to work in a structured
framework and to meet and exchange with the other
postdoctoral fellows and colleagues at the Hebrew
University but to also work on publishing articles
and turning my dissertation into a book. It’s about
the Jewish mercantile elite in Central and Eastern
Europe from the second half of the eighteenth to
the early nineteenth century. I expect to finish that
in mid-2012, and to then start upon a new research
project while in Israel. My research and writing is
facilitated by the very comfortable conditions provided by the Buber Society of Fellows and the closeness
to relevant primary sources and secondary literature
in Jerusalem.
Dr. Cornelia Aust
Impetus for the future
70
“We’re sought-after partners because our research is so effective”
�
Professor Mina Teicher is one of Israel’s most distinguished scientists. After earning in 1981 her
doctorate in mathematics from the University
of Tel Aviv, she embarked upon the main phase
of her academic career, which has supplied her
with a bevy of prestigious academic appointments, visiting professorships and research sojourns in ten countries. Dr. Teicher also served
two stints as the Chief Science Officer of Israel’s
Ministry of Science and Technology – and one
as the ministry’s Director General. Dr. Teicher
has also held a wide range of professional positions. She is currently professor of mathematics
at the Emmy Noether Institute and Minerva
Center for Mathematics at Bar-Ilan University in
Ramat-Gan. Dr. Teicher’s research is in the area
of algebraic geometry. It is yielding the mathematical tools – including algorithms – required
to undertake such challenging operations as
calculating the shape of the universe, as configuring neural networks, and as giving computers exceptional vision capacities.
My family emigrated from Germany to Israel
in 1848, in the aftermath of the revolution.
So we have been in Israel for many generations. I came to Germany in 1988 and started
working with Friedrich Hirzebruch, the great
mathematician, at the Max Planck Institute in
Bonn. He played a seminal role in my life. His
approach to algebraic geometry served as the
basis for mine. His unswerving commitment
to advancing science, supporting scientists
and promoting science collaborations proved
an inspiration to me. My other role model is
Emmy Noether, one of the greatest scientists
of the 20th century. She was a mathematician
and physicist who grew up in an era in which
women were not supposed to become either.
She was forced, moreover, to flee Germany.
All throughout her career, she always took
care of the young students around her. She
created a school that is shaping contempora-
Prof. Mina Teicher, Emmy Noether Institute
and Minerva Center for Mathematics at BarIlan University in Ramat-Gan.
ry science. Why Israel is so sought after as a
partner is very simply because we are so very
efficient when conducting research. We are
a small country with limited resources, so
we have to get the most out of what we have
been able to set up and develop - scientific institutions of world renown. These have joined
with a dedication to innovation in making
us sought-after partners. This pertains to the
USA, the emerging markets in East Asia and
Europe. A figure indicating this productivity
is that Israel by itself accounts for 1% of the
world’s scientific papers. Israel’s scientific
relationships with Germany and with the EU
have been developing strongly because there
are sound motives impelling such. The reasons for including Israeli facilities and companies in research consortia are no longer based
on history, but rather on an appreciation of
what we in Israel have to offer. Our strengths
and areas of specialty form a match with
and a complement to those in Germany and
Europe.
Impetus for the future
Dr. Carl Philipp Emanuel Nothaft
71
“Jewish Identity in the Liminal: the Poet Nelly Sachs
and the Holocaust”. As a former research fellow at
the “Norm and Symbol” special research area of
Konstanz University, I was part of an interdisciplinary
project that investigated the transgenerational transfer of historical experiences and identity conflicts in
Germany. My path to Israel was via my superior at
the time, Professor Aleida Assmann, who brought
my attention to the Buber Society. I wasted no time in
applying. The Buber Society offers me the space and
the infrastructure that I require to totally and highly
efficiently concentrate on my research. Also helping
my work has been the rapidity and ease with which I
got in touch with the Israeli research community. Of
particular benefit is the Society itself. My colleagues
here provide ample intellectual stimulation and are,
to boot, highly pleasant and professional. My project
dr. Carl Philipp emanuel Nothaft, Fellow (2010 – )
of the Foundation Martin Buber Society of
Fellows, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
After having received in 2008 a M.A. in modern and
ancient history and philosophy from the University
of Munich, I secured a scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes. This enabled me
to spend until 2010 on conducting research for my
doctoral dissertation, which explores pre-modern
attempts to date the life of Jesus Christ and their influence on the development of historical chronology in the period between 200 and 1600. I was personally invited to join the Martin Buber Society (MBS)
as a doctoral fellow by its director, David Shulman,
following a recommendation of one of the members
of the academic committee. Being a member of the
MBS has facilitated my research in that it has given
me the time and technical facilities that I require to
devote myself to my work. My book is now nearly
finished and will be published at the end of this year.
In addition to this, while at MBS, I have written a
number of scientific papers, produced public talks,
and published a newspaper article. What strikes me
is how remarkably collaborative the atmosphere
among Israeli academics is. This makes researching
here a highly positive experience.
dr. Andreas Kraft, Fellow (2010 – ) of the Foundation Martin Buber Society of Fellows, Hebrew
University of Jerusalem
I studied German, English and American Literature
at Konstanz University. My doctorial thesis was on
Dr. Andreas Kraft
here investigates the important of artistic media in
dealing with wrath and vengeance. My current focus
is “Jewish Rage and Revenge”. My time in Jerusalem has been spent compiling the foundations of
my research. I have also written several essays, and
have gathered materials for a book. Should my stay
in Jerusalem be extended, it could well be that this
monograph will “come to the world” in this city. The
basic processes of research are very much the same
in Israel and Germany. There are differences – of
varying degrees – in the relationships prevailing at
the countries’ institutions of higher education. Paths
are shorter in Israeli universities. This means that
colleagues are easier to contact, and that hierarchies
aren’t quite so steep.
Appendix
72
Contact addresses
Germany
■■ Embassy of the state of Israel in Berlin
�
http://www.israel.de
�
■■ Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
�
http://www.bmbf.de/en
�
■■ Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom
�
http://www.en.freiheit.org
�
■■ Hanns Seidel Foundation http://www.hss.de/english.html
�
■■ Heinrich Böll Foundation http://www.boell.de/service/home.html
�
Program of cooperation
■■ BMBF-MOITAL-MOST Cooperation in the Sciences and
Technology
http://www.cogeril.de
■■ Konrad Adenauer Foundation
�
http://www.kas.de/wf/en/
�
Private foundations
■■ German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and
Development (GIF)
http://www.gif.org.il
■■ Bertelsmann Foundation
�
http://www.bertelsmann-stiftung.de/cps/rde/xchg/
�
SID-E11E0A13-658F2EF0/bst_engl/hs.xsl/index.html
�
■■ German-Israeli Program on Cooperation in Vocational
Education
http://www.inwent.org/israel
■■ Fritz Thyssen Foundation
http://www.fritz-thyssen-stiftung.de/home/?no_cache
=1&L=1&cHash=117adf62f5979fb5992654769d2e7644
■■ German-Israeli Project Cooperation (DIP)
�
http://www.dfg.de/foerderung/programme/internationales/deutsch_israelische_projektkooperation/
�
index.html
�
■■ Hubert Burda Foundation
�
http://www.hubert-burda-stiftung.de/en
�
■■ German Research Foundation (DFG), Trilateral Cooperation
http://www.dfg.de/foerderung/programme/internationales/trilaterale_projekte/index.html
■■ Volkswagen Foundation
�
http://www.volkswagenstiftung.de/index.html?L=1
�
■■ ZEIT Foundation
http://www.zeit-stiftung.de/home/start.php?lang=en
Associations of scientists
■■ The Martin Buber Society of Fellows
�
http://buberfellows.huji.ac.Il
�
■■ Minerva Foundation, Gesellschaft für die Forschung mbH, Munich http://www.minerva.mpg.de
�
exchange programs
■■ Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH)
http://www.humboldt-foundation.de/web/home.html
■■ German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
�
http://www.daad.de/en
�
■■ Arbeitsgemeinschaft industrieller Forschungsvereinigungen “Otto von Guericke” (AiF)
http://www.aif.de
■■ Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung (FhG)
�
http://www.fhg.de/en
�
■■ Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren
�
http://www.helmholtz.de/en
�
■■ Max Planck Society (MPG)
�
http://www.mpg.de/en
�
Political foundations
■■ Friedrich Ebert Foundation http://www.fes.de
�
■■ Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
http://www.wgl.de
Appendix
Miscellaneous
■■ German Business Portal
�
http://www.german-business-portal.info
�
■■ Germany Trade and Invest – Gesellschaft für Außenwirtschaft und Standortmarketing mbH
�
http://www.invest-in-germany.com
�
Israel
73
■■ Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva
http://web.bgu.ac.il/Eng/Home
■■ Hebrew University of Jerusalem
�
http://www.huji.ac.il/huji/eng
�
■■ Technion, Haifa
�
http://www.technion.ac.il/en
�
■■ Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv
�
http://www.tau.ac.il/index-eng.html
�
■■ German embassy in Tel Aviv
�
http://www.tel-aviv.diplo.de
�
■■ University of Haifa
�
http://www.haifa.ac.il/index_eng.html
�
■■ Israeli Science and Technology Website
�
http://www.science.co.il
�
■■ Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot
�
http://www.weizmann.ac.il
�
■■ Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor MOITAL
�
http://www.moital.gov.il
�
■■ Ministry of Science and Technology MOST
�
http://www.most.gov.il
�
Israeli universities and research facilities
Miscellaneous
■■ Economic Mission of Israel in Germany
�
http://www.israeltrade.gov.il
�
■■ Invest in Israel
�
http://www.investinisrael.gov.il
�
■■ Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan
�
http://www1.biu.ac.il/indexE.php
�
Minerva Centers
Bar-Ilan University
■■ Emmy Noether Institute and Minerva Center for Mathematics
�
http://u.cs.biu.ac.il/~eni/ ■■ Minerva Center for Microscale and Nanoscale Particles
and Films as Tailored Biomaterial Interfaces
sukenc@gefen.cc.biu.ac.il
■■ Minerva Center for Physics of Mesoscopics, Fractals and Neural Networks
�
http://ory.ph.biu.ac.il/Minerva/Minerva1.html
�
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
■■ Reimund Stadler Minerva Center for Mesoscale Macromolecular Engineering
www.bgu.ac.il/RS_Minerva/index.htm
Hebrew University Jerusalem
■■ Carl Melchior Minerva Center for Macroeconomics and Growth
�
msgalor@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il
�
Appendix
74
■■ Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Center for German-Jewish
Literature
http://sites.huji.ac.il
■■ Fritz Haber Minerva Center for Molecular Dynamics
�
http://www.fh.huji.ac.il
�
■■ Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Minerva Center of Computer Science
http://leibniz.cs.huji.ac.il/
■■ Ladislaus Farkas Minerva Center for Light-Induced Processes
�
Yehuda.Haas@huji.ac.il
�
■■ Moshe Shilo Minerva Center for Marine Biogeochemistry
anton@vms.huji.ac.il
■■ Otto Loewy Minerva Center for Cellular and Molecular
Neurobiology
http://otto-loewi-center.huji.ac.il/
Tel Aviv University
■■ Dead Sea Minerva Center
�
http://www.tau.ac.il/~zviba/
�
■■ Hermann Minkowski Minerva Center for Geometry
�
http://www.math.tau.ac.il
�
■■ Julius Friedrich Cohnheim Minerva Center for Cellular
and Molecular Phagocyte Research
epick@post.tau.ac.il
■■ Minerva Center for the Humanities
�
http://mhc.tau.ac.il/en/?p=14
�
■■ Minerva Institute for German History and Wiener Library
�
joseb@post.tau.ac.il
�
weizmann Institute of Science
■■ Otto Warburg Minerva Center for Biotechnology in Agriculture
�
http://www.agri.huji.ac.il
�
■■ Albert Einstein Minerva Center for Theoretical Physics
http://www.weizmann.ac.il/physics/einstein_physics.
html
■■ Richard Koebner Minerva Center for German History
mszimm@pluto.mscc.huji.ac.il
■■ Gerhardt M.J. Schmidt Minerva Center on Supramolecular Architecture
http://www.weizmann.ac.il
■■ Wilhelm Kühne Minerva Center for Studies of Visual Transduction
�
mnke@md.huji.ac.il
�
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
■■ Franz Ollendorf Minerva Center for Information and Automation
�
zeevi@ee.technion.ac.il
�
■■ Georg Sachs Minerva Center for Materials Processing and Structure Characterization
�
http://materials.technion.ac.il/Minerva.html
�
■■ John von Neumann Minerva Center for the Development of Reactive Systems
�
http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/~reactive/
�
■■ Josef Cohn Minerva Center for Biomembrane Research
zvi.livneh@weizmann.ac.il
Multi-institutional Minerva Centers
■■ James Franck Binational German-Israeli Minerva Programme in Laser Matter Interaction
- Ben-Gurion University
■■ Minerva Optimization Centre
�
http://ie.technion.ac.il/Labs/Opt/
�
■■ Schlesinger Minerva Laboratory for Life Cycle Engineering
�
http://mecadserv1.technion.ac.il/public_html/schlesinger/schlesinger.htm
�
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
- Tel Aviv University
- Weizmann Institute of Science
Appendix
■■ Lise Meitner Minerva Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry
75
■■ Minerva Center for Human Rights
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Tel Aviv University
- Tel Aviv University
■■ Max Wertheimer Minerva Center for Cognitive Processes and Human Performance
■■ Minerva Center for Nonlinear Physics of Complex
Systems
- Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
- Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
- Weizmann Institute of Science
- University of Haifa
Partnerships between Israeli and German
institutions of Higher Education
Bar-Ilan University
Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences
Dresden University of Technology
Technical University of Berlin
Humboldt University of Berlin
Technical University of Darmstadt
Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences
Technical University of Hamburg
Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
University of Bielefeld
Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg
University of Jewish Studies Heidelberg
University of Kassel
Technion Haifa
University of Ulm
Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Anhalt University of Applied Sciences
Bergische University of Wuppertal
Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg
Beuth University of Applied Sciences for Technology Berlin
Dresden University of Technology
Bremen University of Applied Sciences
Free University of Berlin
Dresden University of Technology
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University of Hanover
Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
Heidelberg University
Appendix
76
Humboldt University of Berlin
Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Technical University of Braunschweig
Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences
Technical University of Munich
Martin-Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
University of Bayreuth
Mittweida University of Applied Sciences
University of Bielefeld
RWTH Aachen University
University of Düsseldorf
Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences for Media and
Communication
University of Hamburg
University of Konstanz
Technical University of Berlin
University of Mainz
Technical University of Braunschweig
University of Osnabrück
Technical University of Hamburg
University of Potsdam
Technical University of Kaiserslautern
University of Tübingen
Technical University of Munich
University of Würzburg
University of Bochum
University of Bonn
Hebrew University Jerusalem
University of Freiburg
Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin
University of Hamburg
Free University of Berlin
University of Jewish Studies Heidelberg
Humboldt-University of Berlin
University of Passau
Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences
Witten/Herdecke University
Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
University of Haifa
Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences for Media and
Communication
Beuth University of Applied Technical Sciences Berlin
Technical University of Berlin
Bucerius Law School, University of Applied Jurisprudence
Technical University of Braunschweig
Dresden University of Technology
University of Bochum
Free University of Berlin
University of Bonn
Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences
University of Freiburg
Appendix
77
University of Hamburg
Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg
University of Heidelberg
Technical University of Braunschweig
University of Jewish Studies Heidelberg
Technical University of Hamburg
University of Passau
Technical University of Munich
Witten/Herdecke University
University of Bayreuth
University of Bielefeld
Tel Aviv University
University of Hamburg
Beuth University of Applied Technical Sciences Berlin
University of Konstanz
Bucerius Law School, University of Jurisprudence
University of Tübingen
Dresden University of Technology
University of Würzburg
Free University of Berlin
Weizmann Institute of Science
Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences
Abbreviations
ARO Agricultural Research Organization
DFG German Research Foundation
AvH Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
DIP German-Israeli project cooperation in futureoriented
fields
BIO-DISC German-Israeli Cooperation in Biotechnology
DKFZ German Cancer Research Center
BMBF Federal Ministry of Education and Research
DLR German Aerospace Agency
BMU Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety
BMZ Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and
Development
EMBL European Molecular Biology Laboratory
EMBO European Molecular Biology Organization
ESRF European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research
CHE Council of Higher Education (central body managing
Israel’s institutions of higher education and colleges)
COST European Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and
Technological Research
DAAD German Academic Exchange Service
EUREKA European Initiative for Market-Oriented Industrial Research and Development
FIRST program promoting fields of research underrepresented in Israel
FP Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development
Appendix
78
GDP gross domestic product
M.A. Magister Artium
GIF German Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and
Development
MOITAL Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor
MOST Ministry of Science and Technology
GLOWA Globaler Wandel des Wasserkreislaufes – Global
transformation of water circulation system
MPG Max Planck Society
IMPRS International Max Planck Research School
NCRD National Council for Research and Development
Inwent Internationale Weiterbildung und Entwicklung
gGmbH
OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
ISA Israeli Space Agency
OCS Office of the Chief Scientist
ISERD Israeli Directorate for EU Framework Program
R&D Research and Development
ISF Israeli Science Foundation
RWTH Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische University of
Applied Sciences, Aachen
IST Information Society Technology, part of the EU’s
Framework Program
KMK Permanent Conference of the Ministers of Culture of
the States of the Federal Republic of Germany
SMART Sustainable Management of Available Water
Resources with Innovative Technologies
TU Technical University
LIFE Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources,
part of the EU’s Framework Program
The significance of the cooperation between Germany and Israel
Sources, literature and photographic credits:
Sources and literature
Adenauer, Konrad: Erinnerungen 1953-1955, DVA-Stuttgart, 1966
Bar-Zohar, Michael: David Ben-Gurion, Lübbe Verlag,
Bergisch-Gladbach, 1988
Birrenbach, Kurt: Meine Sondermission, Econ Verlag, 1984
DKFZ: Krebsforschung und Kooperation: DeutschIsraelische Zusammenarbeit in der Krebsforschung – Die
ersten 20 Jahre, Heidelberg, 1999
Federal Foreign Office: Die Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Nahe Osten. Dokumentation, Bonn, Reihe:
Berichte und Dokumentationen, 1987
Federal Ministry of Education, Science, Research and
Technology: 40 Jahre wissenschaftlich-technische Kooperation mit Israel, Documentation, Berlin, 2000
Federal Ministry of Education, Science, Research and
Technology: Eindrücke und Erfahrungen über die
deutsch-israelische Wissenschaftskooperation, 1995
Feldmann, Lily G.: The Special Relationship between West
Germany and Israel, George Allen & Unwin, Boston, 1984
Appendix
The German-Israel Foundation for Research and Development: Highlights of Scientific Cooperation; GIF Projects
and Meetings, Jerusalem, 1995
Gerwin, Robert: Gemeinsamer Brückenschlag in die
Zukunft, Ed.: Weizmann Institute, Rehovot/Zurich/Munich,
1993
KMK: Wissenschaftsbeziehungen zwischen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und dem Staat Israel, Bestandsaufnahme der Länder in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland über die
Hochschulkooperation, Bonn, 1995
Nachmansohn, D., Schmidt, R.: Die große Ära der Wissenschaft in Deutschland 1900 bis 1933, Wissenschaftliche
Verlagsgesellschaft mbH Stuttgart, 1988
Nickel, D. K.: Es begann in Rehovot. Die Anfänge der wissenschaftlichen Zusammenarbeit zwischen Israel und der
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English version 1993; reprinted as “Brücken-Pfeiler” by the
Minerva Foundation in Munich, 1998
Vogel, Rolf: Der deutsch-israelische Dialog, Dokumentation, Munich 1987
Contributions on the results of working relationships
Barak, Amnon and Leie, Stephanie, GIF
Hoff, Holger and Nicklas, Ulrich, GLOWA
Kahle, Felix, Minerva
Lottner, Volkmar, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, PTJERG
Metzger, Hans-Joachim, Projektträger Forschungszentrum
Karlsruhe, Bereich Wassertechnologie und Entsorgung
(PTKA-WTE)
Momburg, F., German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ),
Heidelberg
Peterson, Hans-Peter, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH,
PTJ-BIO
79
Regenbogen, J., GATC
Semmler, Wolfhard, German Cancer Research Center
(DKFZ), Heidelberg
Thunecke, Heinz, Projekträger im DLR
Published by
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Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) Division for Cooperation with European Countries, Israel 53170 Bonn, Germany
Orders
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Layout
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Photo credits
Bar-Ilan University, Ben-Gurion University, Bavarian State
Library, Bertelsmann Foundation (34), European Union, 2011
(25), Federal Government/S. Kugler (66), Friedrich Ebert Founda­
tion (31), German Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and
Development (20), German Research Foundation (26), The Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, Heinrich Böll Foundation (32), H. Hötzl
(63), Humboldt Foundation/E. Lichtenscheidt (29), iStockpho­
to.com/mevans (59), iStockphoto. com/quavondo (18), KABA
Gallenschütz GmbH (58), C. Kielmann (27), Konrad Adenauer
Foundation (33), W. Lehmann (60), The Martin Buber Society
of Fellows (23, 65), Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics/I.
Bloch (62), Max Planck Society, O. Levitan (61), L. Oz (68), private
(67, 69, 70, 71), Stadt Frankfurt a.M., Amt für Gesundheit (57),
Technion, Tel Aviv University, Thinkstock (64), University of
Haifa, Volkswagen Foundation, Weizmann Institute of Science
Edited by
Dr. Monika Offenberger and Terry Swartzberg (authors),
Dr. Birgit Ditgens and Sabrina Legies (International Bureau of the BMBF at the Project Management Agency c/o German Aerospace Center DLR), Norbert Grust (wbv)
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